Following the completion of the double bottom at 156.92p and a further extension to the 161.62p price mark, the Barclays share price is down slightly as traders who caught this move early bank some profits.
The bank will publish its earnings for H1 2022 on Thursday, 28 July. Barclays bank, with a market cap of over $30 billion, saw its first-quarter revenue rise by 10%, helped largely by earnings from its global operations. It also saw revenue from its payment services and consumer products rise by 10% following the Bank of England’s interest rate increases. Revenue from investment banking activity, however, declined sharply.
Analysts expect the bank to shed some of these revenue gains. The prediction is a quarterly drop from $8.10 billion in Q1 2022 to $7.45 billion in the second quarter of 2022. The market focus will be on its investment banking revenues, which have grossly underperformed recently.
The report will also indicate to what extent the drop in consumer spending from stratospheric inflation levels and drop-off in lending from rising interest rates would have impacted the bank’s bottom lines. These will likely determine the Barclays’ share price activity in the week ahead. The Barclays share price is down 1.06% as of writing.
The rejection at the 161.62 resistance could provide an opportunity for a short-term correction following the completion of the double bottom. The price action within the range between 161.62 (ceiling) and 156.92 (floor) is an expanding triangle, which further cements the potential of a correction.
The breakdown of 156.92 initiates this move, targeting the support at 151.12 (19 May and 18 July lows). If the bulls fail to defend this pivot, the 147.48 (13 May and 5 July lows) becomes the new downside target. Finally, 140.80 rounds off potential harvest points for the bears, being the location of a previous triple bottom pattern.
On the flip side, a break of the 161.62 resistance opens the door for the bulls to push toward the 167.86 barrier (24 March and 7 June lows). A clearance of this point leads the way toward 173.60, the site of the 23 March and 20 May highs. 177.34 (17 March high) and the 24 December 2021 low at 186,14 are additional northbound targets, with the 180.00 psychological mark forming a potential pitstop.
This post was last modified on Jul 26, 2022, 14:48 BST 14:48