Morning Notes – Thursday, March 30, 2023

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are higher at 8:15 AM – trending up since 2:00 PM on Tuesday
  • The odds are for an up day – watch for a break below 4052.50 for a change of sentiments
  • The major economic data report is due during the day.
    • Final GDP ( 2.7% est.; prev. 2.7%) at 8:50 AM
    • Unemployment Claims ( 196K est.; prev. 191K) at 8:30 AM
    • Final GDP Price Index ( 3.9% est.; prev. 3.9%) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

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

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4030.59, 4007.32, and 3999.53
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4055.86, 4072.30, and 4081.51
  • The key levels for E-mini futures are a break above 4082.50, a high at 10:00 AM on March 6,  and a break below 4062.50, a low at 3:00 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2023) closed at 4058.75, and the index closed at 4027.81 – a spread of about +31.00 points; the futures closed at 4057.50; the fair value is +0.75
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures were higher – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +31.25, Dow by +223, and NASDAQ by +103.75

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Tokyo closed lower; Mumbai was closed
  • European markets are higher
  • Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
Up Down
  • EUR/USD
  • GBP/USD
  • AUD/USD
  • NZD/USD
  • Dollar index
  • USD/JPY
  • USD/CHF
  • USD/CAD
  • INR/USD
  • Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
    • Energy futures are mixed
    • Precious metals are higher
    • Industrial metals are mostly lower
    • Soft commodities are mixed
  • Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
    • The 10-year yield closed at 3.566, up +7.4 basis points from two weeks ago;
    • The 30-year is at 3.778%, up +9.1 basis points;
    • The 2-year yield is at 4.060%, up +18.1 basis points;
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at -0.494, down from -0.387
    • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.212, up from +0.195
  • VIX
    • At 18.91 @ 6:45 AM; down from the last close; below the 5-day SMA;
    • Recent high = 30.81 on March 13; low = 18.16 on March 2
    • Sentiment: Risk-On

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

Weekly:
  • The week ending on March 24 was a small green candle with a long upper shadow and a small lower shadow
    • Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is above the %D;
    • RSI-9 is just above 50
  • The week was up +54.35 or +1.4%; the 5-week ATR  is 154.85
  • An up week, third in the last five weeks, and fifth in the previous ten weeks;
  • The weekly pivot point=3973.21, R1=4037.27, R2=4103.54; S1=3906.94, S2=3842.88; R1 pivot level was breached
  • Below 10-week EMA; above 39-week SMA; below 89-week SMA
  • Uptrend Under Pressure
Daily
  • A green candle with almost no upper and lower shadows that gapped up;
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K crossed above the %D.
    • RSI-9 is just above 60; above 8-DMA
  • Above 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day SMA, and 200-day SMA;
  • Uptrend Resumed
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
  • Moving up within an up-sloping flag, which is in effect since 2:00 PM on March 9, near a resistance level around 4080.00
    • RSI-21 has bounced up to above 80 from near 30
    • Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias:  Up
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • Trending up since 2:00 PM on March 28
    • RSI-21 is moving above 75
    • Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Up
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) has been moving up since 3:15 PM on Tuesday
  • The Bollinger Band has been expanding since 1:45 AM, with price walking up the upper band
  • Bias: Up

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Wednesday, March 29, in mostly higher volume. Russell 2000 traded in lower volume.

The major indices gapped up at the open and then mostly traded higher for the rest of the day, closing near the highs. All S&P sectors closed higher.

From Briefing.com:

[…]

Today’s trade had a decidedly positive tone following the two-day Congressional hearing on the SIVB bank failure.

[…]

Strength from semiconductor components helped drive a 2.1% gain in the S&P 500 information technology sector, which closed near the top of the leaderboard along with real estate (+2.3%) and consumer discretionary (+1.9%).

All 11 sectors closed with gains, but the defensive-oriented consumer staples (+0.5%) and health care (+0.2%) sectors lagged the broader market with the slimmest gains of the day.

[…]

Advancers led decliners by a nearly 4-to-1 margin at the NYSE and a 2-to-1 margin at the Nasdaq.

[…]

The 2-yr note yield rose one basis point to 4.07% and the 10-yr note yield was unchanged at 3.57%.

  • Nasdaq Composite: +14.0% YTD
  • S&P 500: +4.9% YTD
  • S&P Midcap 400: +1.3% YTD
  • Russell 2000: +0.6% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: -1.3% YTD
[…]
  • The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.9% with purchase application jumping 2.0% (-35% yr/yr) while refinancing applications rose 5.0% (-61% yr/yr).
  • Pending home sales rose 0.8% in February (Briefing.com consensus -2.3%) following a 8.1% increase in January.
  • The weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories showed a draw of 7.49 million barrels following last week’s draw of 1.06 million barrels.
[…]

Overseas: 

  • Europe: DAX +1.2%, FTSE +1.1%, CAC +1.4%
  • Asia: Nikkei +1.3%, Hang Seng +2.1%, Shanghai -0.2%

Commodities: 

  • Crude Oil -0.12 @ 72.97
  • Nat Gas +0.02 @ 2.17
  • Gold -5.50 @ 1967.80
  • Silver +0.11 @ 23.52
  • Copper flat @ 4.08