Morning Notes – Wednesday May 26, 2021

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are higher
  • The odds are for an up to sideways day – watch for a break below 4210.00 and a break below 4191.25 for clarity
  • No key economic data report due during the day:

Directional Bias Before Open:

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

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4191.03, 4182.52, and 4170.16
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4213.42, 4220.29, and 4236.39
  • Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4210.00, the high of 9:30 AM on Tuesday and break below 4191.25, the low of 2:00 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2021) closed at 4185.75 and the index closed at 4188.13 – a spread of about -2.50 points; futures closed at 4185.50 for the day; the fair value is +0.25
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +12.75; Dow by +72, and NASDAQ by +61.75

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed mostly  higher – Sydney and Seoul closed down; Singapore was closed for trading
  • European markets are mostly lower – Switzerland is higher
  • Currencies (from two weeks ago):
    Up Down
    • EUR/USD
    • GBP/USD
    • USD/JPY
    • Dollar index
    • USD/CHF
    • AUD/USD
    • NZD/USD
    • USD/CAD
    • INR/USD
  • Commodities (from two weeks ago):
    • Energy futures are mixed
    • Precious metals are higher
    • Industrial metals are lower
    • Most soft commodities are mostly lower
  • Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
    • 10-years yield closed at 1.564%, down -6.0 basis points from two weeks ago;
    • 30-years is at 2.260%, down -9.1 basis points;
    • 2-years yield is at 0.150%, down -1.1 basis points;
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.414, down from 1.463
  • VIX
    • At 18.36 @ 7:45 AM; lower from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
    • Recent high =  25.96 on May 19; low =  16.68 on May 7
    • Sentiment: Risk-On-Neutral

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

Monthly
  • Confirmed Uptrend
  • March 2021 was a green candle with a small upper shadow and a lower shadow almost equal to the real body; at all-time closing and intra-month highs;
    • Stochastic %K above %D near 100;
    • RSI-9 near 75; broke above a downtrend line from January 2018
    • Above the upper band of a 120-month regression channel;
  • The sequence of higher highs and higher lows is resumed
Weekly:
  • The week ending on May 21 was a red candle like a Hamme, with a small body, a small upper shadow, and a long lower shadow; the whole candle is almost within the long lower shadow of the previous week’s BEarish Engulfing candle indicating a potential reversal
    • Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is below %D;
    • RSI (9) is around 65 75
  • The week was down -17.99 or -0.4%; the 5-week ATR is 107.20
  • A down week; third in the last five weeks, and fourth in the last ten weeks
  • The weekly week pivot point=4135.33, R1=4209.25, R2=4262.64; S1=4081.94, S2=4008.02; S1 pivot level was breached
  • Above 10-week EMA, 39-week SMA, and 89-week SMA
  • Uptrend since March 23, 2020
Daily
  • A red candle with small upper and lower shadows;
    • %K is above %D but turning down
    • RSI-9 is just near 55; above 8-day EMA
  • Above 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day, and 200-day SMA
  • Uptrend under Pressure
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
  • Moving up since 10:00 AM on May 19; broke above a resistance level around 4180.00; next resistance is the all-time high of 4238.25; moving sideways since 12:00 PM on May 24
    • RSI-21 is around 55
    • Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Up-Side
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • Moving sideways since 10:30 AM on May 24
    • RSI-21 is moving around 50
    • At/above EMA20, which is at/above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Side
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is moving sideways since 10:30 PM
  • The Bollinger Band is expanding slightly since 3:00 AM
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is crossing %D
  • Bias: Down-Side

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed lower on Tuesday, May 25 in mostly higher volume. NASDAQ Composite traded in lower volume. Indices mostly traded down after the first half-hour of the day.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 decreased 0.2% on Tuesday, fading a positive open, as the market took a breather while investors reassessed the growth outlook. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.03%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.2%) also closed slightly lower while the Russell 2000 (-1.0%) underperformed with a 1.0% decline.

[…]

The information technology sector (+0.1%), which is more oriented towards growth stocks, increased just 0.1%. The consumer discretionary sector (+0.3%) was the top-performer with a 0.3% gain.

[…]

The 2-yr yield remained unchanged at 0.15%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.2% to 89.69. WTI crude futures settled higher by 0.1%, or $0.05, to $66.07/bbl.

[…]
  • New home sales declined 5.9% month-over-month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 863,000 (Briefing.com consensus 980,000) from a downwardly revised 917,000 (from 1.021 million) in March. On a yr/yr basis, new home sales were up 48.3%, having lapped a very depressed comparison period due to the pandemic.
  • […]
  • The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index checked in at 117.2 in May (Briefing.com consensus 118.0) versus a downwardly revised 117.5 (from 121.7) in April.
  • […]
  • The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased 13.3% yr/yr in March (Briefing.com consensus 12.6%) following a revised 12.0% increase (from +11.9%) in February.
  • The FHFA Housing Price Index increased 1.4% m/m in March following a revised 1.1% increase (+0.9%) in February.
[…]
  • Russell 2000 +11.7% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +12.1% YTD
  • S&P 500 +11.5% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite +6.0% YTD

Overseas: 

  • Europe: DAX +0.2%, FTSE -0.3%, CAC -0.3%
  • Asia: Nikkei +0.7%, Hang Seng +1.8%, Shanghai +2.4%

Commodities: 

  • Crude Oil +0.15 @ 66.10
  • Nat Gas +0.02 @ 2.98
  • Gold +14.80 @ 1898.90
  • Silver +0.20 @ 28.08
  • Copper -0.03 @ 4.51