Despite a 6% decline from Intel (INTC) in reaction to its Q4 earnings report, US equity futures are looking to close out the week on a positive note. These gains follow strong showings in both Asia overnight and Europe this morning. 

Breaking downtrends. That seems to be the theme of this week as a number of charts we go through show similar patterns of breaking the short-term downtrends of the fourth quarter. Granted, longer-term downtrends remain in place, but you have to start somewhere! The example we wanted to highlight this morning is Europe’s STOXX 600. As shown in the chart below, after a brief consolidation following the upside break of the 50-DMA, today’s rally has pushed the STOXX 600 above the short-term downtrend that has been in place since last Fall.