Morning Notes – Tuesday March 6, 2018

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are higher; mostly moving sideways since 3:00 PM on Monday
  • Forming a down-sloping flag on 6-minute chart; trying to break to the upside
  • Odds are for an up to sideways move day with great volatility – watch for break above 2685.75 and break below 2672.50 for change of fortunes
  • No Key economic data due

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East were mostly up – Mumbai was down
  • European markets are mostly higher – Switzerland is lower
  • Currencies:
    Up Down
    • EUR/USD
    • GBP/USD
    • AUD/USD
    • NZD/USD
    • Dollar index
    • USD/JPY
    • USD/CHF
    • USD/CAD
  • Commodities:
    Up Down
    • Crude Oil
    • NatGas
    • Gold
    • Silver
    • Copper
    • Platinum
    • Palladium
    • Coffee
    • Cotton
    • Sugar
    • Cocoa
  • Bonds
    • 10-yrs yield is at 2.8850% up from March 5 close of 2.881%;
    • 30-years is at 3.146%, down from 3.151%
    • 2-years yield is at 2.250%, up from 2.246%
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.635 unchanged

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2709.42, 2675.75 and 2664.83
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2730.89, 2738.02 and 2754.43
  • Key levels for eMini futures: break above 2734.50, the high of 6:30 AM and break below 2725.75, the low of 8:30 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Monday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (March contract) closed at 2721.25 and the index closed at 2720.94 – a spread of about +0.25 points; futures closed at 2718.50 for the day; the fair value is +2.75
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures price action is to the upside – at 8:45 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +9.50; Dow by +107.00; and NASDAQ by +34.75

Directional Bias Before Open

  • Weekly: Uptrend Under Pressure
  • Daily: Uptrend Under Pressure
  • 120-Min: Side
  • 30-Min: Side-Up
  • 15-Min: Up-Side
  • 6-Min: Up-Side

The trend and patterns on various time frames for S&P 500 are:

Monthly
  • Confirmed Uptrend
  • December 2017 closed higher; index has been higher for the nine straight months; it has only one down month, March 2017, since October 2016
  • Uptrend resumption since Feb 08, 2016 after a pull back of -15.2%
Weekly:
  • The week ending on March 2 was a large bearish engulfing candles with large upper and lower shadows
  • Last week’s pivot point=2709.24, R1=2771.16, R2=2812.07; S1=2629.33, S2=2567.41; S1/S2/S3/R1/R2 pivot levels were breached;
  • A down week; first after two up weeks, third in last five weeks and fourth in last ten weeks
  • Broke above a down sloping flag on April 24 2017;
    • flag-low was 2322.25 during 27-Mar-17 week; shorter flag-pole length is 317.19 and longer flag-pole length is 590.88;
    • 100% extension target of shorter flag-pole near 2639.41 is achieved; and the 161.8% extension target is near 2835.46
    • 61.8% extension target of longer flag-pole near 2687.41 is achieved; the 100% extension target is near 2913.13
  • Broke above a down-sloping flag on November 14, 2016;
    • the flag low was 2083.79 during 31-Oct-16 week; the shorter flag-pole length is 202.13 and the longer flag-pole length is 383.71;
    • 261.8% extension target of shorter flag-pole near 2612.97 is achieved
    • the 161.8% extension target of longer flag-pole near 2704.63 is achieved; the 261.8% extension target is near 3088.34
  • Last swing low, 2322.25, was the low on March 27, 2017
  • Below 10-week EMA; at 39-week SMA and above 89-week SMA
  • Uptrend under pressure
Daily
  • A large green candle that closed above Thursday’s large red candle’s open;
  • Last big pattern, a down-sloping flag in June 2017, was broken to the upside on July 13, 2017; in August the index declined and tested the broken upper limit of the flag; since then the index has made three very small flags; it broke to the upside of the last flag on January 2
  • Bounced off 200-day SMA on February 9
  • At 20-day EMA; above 50-day EMA; above 100-day SMA and 200-day SMA
  • Uptrend under pressure
2-Hour (e-mini future)
  • Broke above a downtrend line from the high on February 27;
  • RSI-9 rising since a low of 25.86 at 8:00 AM on March 2; above 65
  • At 20-bar EMA, which is below EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Side
30-Minute (e-mini future)
  • Broke above an irregular inverse head-&-shoulder pattern; the 100% extension target is near 2743.00, which is about 16 point away
  • RSI is hovering above 65 since 10:30 AM on March 5
  • Above 20-bar EMA, which is above 50-bar EMA
  • Bias: Side-Up
15-Minute (e-mini future)
  • Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is, mostly, moving sideway since 4:00 PM on March 5
  • The band contracted during Asian and started to expand a from 6:00 AM
  • RSI is mostly between 50 and 75 since 10:15 AM on March 5
  • The Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is declining after reaching 100 at 6:00 AM; now at 20
  • Bias: Up-Side

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices advanced on Monday March 5, following through of Friday’s advance, which was a thrusting candlestick pattern for most. The two day move was more than the piercing candle’s thrust into a large red candle for Thursday. The volume was lower than that on Friday, which in turn was lower than on Thursday.

 

  • S&P 500 Sectors
Up Down
  1. Consumer Discretionary
  2. Consumer Staples
  3. Energy
  4. Materials
  5. Industrials
  6. Finance
  7. Technology
  8. Utility
  9. Heath Care
  10. Real Estate
  11. Telecom