Must-See Charts: Ford, China Mobile, Rio Tinto

Here's this week's look at how some of the biggest names on Wall Street are trading technically.

By Jonas Elmerraji , Mar 4, 2010 11:57 AM EST

BALTIMORE (Stockpickr) -- The Federal Reserve Board released its semi-quarterly Beige Book yesterday, a report that outlines the nation's current economic conditions. While the numbers indicated another period of moderate growth, investors reacted by slamming their collective brakes and shoving the market down to a flat close for the day.

But it doesn't matter which way the broad market ends the week; we're going to take a look at how the big-name stocks are trading technically and see whether or not it's time to make a profitable play.

Technical analysis uses a stock's price movements to determine where shares are headed in the future. Technical charts are used every day by proprietary trading floors, the street's biggest financial firms and individual investors to get an edge on the market. And according to some sources, skilled technical traders can bank gains as much as 90% of the time.

Every week, Stockpickr analyzes the technicals for some of Wall Street's highest-volume stocks and takes a look at how to trade them. Here's

this week's look

at how some of the biggest names on Wall Street are trading technically.

International mining giant

Rio Tinto

(RTP)

is having a strong week. Shares are up 5.7% in the last three trading days. But it's this stock's potential right now that has traders' attention.

Rio Tinto reported significantly lower numbers for their 2009 year-end, a reality that analysts expected but one that still pushed shares lower in the short term. Rio's fundamentals have benefited in a big way of late, and this latest earnings slowdown has done little to quell the stock's upward momentum. As a result, shares broke above a technical resistance level in yesterday's trading, a factor that could lead to significantly higher ground in the coming week.

Wait for a second consecutive close above the horizontal black line before considering going long this mining play.

China Mobile

(CHL) - Get Report

controls more than 70% of the Chinese mobile phone market, a fact that didn't spare the company from a sizable share slide yesterday following the announcement that the company would diverge from its core business and make a significant investment in a Chinese bank.

Despite China Mobile's brand position, the company faces fierce competition in the lucrative and fast-moving Chinese telecom market. That fact could slice away at the company's size if it sways too far from the business that's made China Mobile a serious player on Wall Street. From a trading perspective, things look rough for CHL right now.

The company broke down below both its 200-day and 50-day moving averages yesterday, a signal that shares could be in for a significantly lower move now that all signs of support have been wiped away. As with Rio Tinto above, wait for a second consecutive close before betting against China Mobile.

Best-of-breed automaker

Ford

(F) - Get Report

is no stranger to our Must-See Charts list. I called the company a technical buy back in mid-December and again in January. All told, if you'd bought shares on the technical trigger I mentioned, you'd have banked 33.7% gains. And I think this car company is set to deliver some even bigger ones in the next month.

Ford's seen two bullish ascending triangle patterns in the last quarter, and both have led to a significant price breakout. Ford continues to trade right around its 52-week high, a phenomenon that means the stock doesn't have any meaningful resistance levels to trip it up in the short term. The company's latest breakout gave us a support level right above $12, minimizing our downside risk at this moment.

Continue to be cautiously optimistic about Ford -- I am.

To see this week's trades in action, check out the

High Volume Technicals

portfolio on Stockpickr.

-- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.

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Jonas Elmerraji is the editor and portfolio manager of the