Citi strategists published a brilliant '12 Charts of Christmas' looking forward to 2017

Reuters/Alex Wroblewski

Market analysts are starting to wrap up their year’s work and turning their attention to what will happen in 2017.

Citi’s FX team, looking at the technical trading positions of a range of assets, has a note out with a dozen predictions, with some summary statements that helpfully line up with the tune of seasonal favourite sing-song, “The 12 days of Christmas.”

An edited version of the slide deck from analysts Tom Fitzpatrick, Shyam Devani, Dan Tobon, and Beimnet Abebe is below. It’s republished with kind permission and their key calls include:

• The S&P will continue to rise;
• Oil is heading above $US60;
• US consumer price inflation will head “close to 3%”;
• US 10-year Treasury yields have the potential to bust out beyond 4%;
• The US dollar will continue to strengthen;
• The Euro will hit parity with the US dollar and potentially fall below that level, and,
• The gold price will continue to fall.

It’s a good summary of views on some major issues, delivered with some seasonal spirit and the odd gratuitous reference to technical trading terms such as channel bases. But anyone can read this and follow what they see flowing from the charts.

Here we go:

The pack kicks off with a classic bad Photoshop job encapsulating some of the key themes likely to dominate the year ahead. See if you can spot them all...

Here's a summary of the calls. Some disclaimers are highlighted. Now let's get on with it - everybody sing together...

The first chart of Christmas truly says to me -- An even higher S&P we’ll see

There is strong likelihood that the S&P 500 posts only the third bullish outside year in the last 81 years, in 2016. The other years being 1935 and 1982 after which we saw up years of 28% and 17% respectively.