Morning Notes – Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are slightly lower at 8:45 AM; moving sideways since 3:15 AM around 4785.00 levels
  • The odds are for a sideways to a down day – watch for a break above 4787.75 for a change of sentiments
  • Key economic data report due during the day:
    • ADP Non-Farm Employment Change ( 807K vs. 405K est.; prev. 505K) at 8:15 AM
    • Final Services PMI ( 57.5 est.; prev. 57.5) at 9:45 AM
    • FOMC Meeting Minutes at 2:00 PM

Directional Bias Before Open:

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

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4774.27, 4758.17, and 4725.00
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4807.64, 4818.62, and 4839.83
  • Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4787.75, the high of 5:00 AM and break below 4775.00, the low of 8:15 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2022) closed at 4783.75 and the index closed at 4793.54 – a spread of about -9.75 points; futures closed at 4784.25 for the day; the fair value is -0.50
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures are mixed – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -2.50; Dow up by +5; and NASDAQ down by -59.25

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed mostly lower – Tokyo and Mumbai closed up
  • European markets are mostly higher – Switzerland is lower
  • Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
    Up Down
    • EUR/USD
    • GBP/USD
    • USD/JPY
    • AUD/USD
    • NZD/USD
    • Dollar index
    • USD/CHF
    • USD/CAD
    • INR/USD
  • Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
    • Energy futures are mixed
    • Precious metals are higher
    • Industrial metals are higher
    • Soft commodities are mostly higher
  • Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
    • 10-years yield closed at 1.658%, up +17.1 basis points from two weeks ago;
    • 30-years is at 2.062%, up +16.5 basis points;
    • 2-years yield is at 0.758%, up +10.0 basis points;
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.900, up from 0.829
    • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.404, down from 0.410
  • VIX
    • At 17.11 @ 8:00 AM; up from the last close; at/above 5-day SMA;
    • Recent high = 27.39 on December 20; low =  16.03 on November 16
    • Sentiment: Risk-Neutral

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

Monthly
  • December 2021 was a green candle that opened above the previous week’s real-body and closed higher with a small upper shadow and a slightly longer lower shadow; at all-time highs
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K crossed above %D; above 90;
    • RSI-9 is turning up from above 75;
    • Above the upper band of a 120-month regression channel;
  • Confirmed Uptrend: sequence of higher highs and higher lows
Weekly:
  • The week ending on December 31 was a small green candle like a tear-drop
    • Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is turning down above %D; near 80
    • RSI-9 is just above 65
  • The week was up +40.39 or +0.9%; the 5-week ATR  is 155.50
  • An up week; third in the last five weeks, and sixth in the previous ten weeks
  • The weekly pivot point=4769.70, R1=4805.41, R2=4844.64; S1=4730.47, S2=4694.76; R1 pivot level was breached
  • Above 10-week EMA; above 39-week SMA; above 89-week SMA
  • Uptrend Resumed
Daily
  • A small red spinning top candle near all-time highs
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K crossed below %D from above 90; Potential Bearish Divergence
    • RSI-9 has turned down; at/above 8-day EMA
  • Above 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day SMA, and 200-day SMA
  • Uptrend Resumed
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
  • Declined back to the Horizontal Channel – between 4798.00 and 4750.00 – that the price broke above once;
    • RSI-21 has risen to 50 from near 35 after declining from near 70 on Tuesday
  • At/below EMA20, which is at/above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Up-Side
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • Moving essentially sideways since 4:00 PM on December 27;
    • RSI-21 is around 50
    • At/above EMA20, which is at/below EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Side-Up
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is moving sideways since 6:30 AM
  • The Bollinger Band is expanded but stable since 6:30 AM;
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is crisscrossing %D
  • Bias: Down-Side

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed on Tuesday, January 4, in mixed volume. S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index closed lower. Dow Jones Transportation Average, S&P 500, and Russell 2000 traded in lower volume. The major indices opened up and traded higher then declined till mid-afternoon before recovering some of the losses. Dow Jones Industrial Average and NYSE Composite made all-time closing and intraday highs. S&P 500 made the all-time intraday high but closed down for the day.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 declined 0.1% on Tuesday in a mixed session, which was better represented by the sharp divergence between the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.6%) and Nasdaq Composite (-1.3%). Both the S&P 500 and Dow set intraday record highs while the Dow also set a closing record high. The Russell 2000 declined 0.2%.

[…]

More specifically, the S&P 500 energy (+3.5%), financials (+2.6%), industrials (+2.0%), and materials (+1.3%) sectors rose between 1-4%. The 10-yr yield increased four basis points to 1.67% while the 2-yr yield decreased two basis points to 0.76%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.1% to 96.28.

[…]

The information technology (-1.1%), health care (-1.4%), and consumer discretionary (-0.7%) sectors struggled amid weakness in the growth stocks.

[…]
  • The December ISM Manufacturing Index checked in at 58.7% (Briefing.com consensus 60.3%) versus 61.1% in November. A number above 50.0% is indicative of expansion. December marked the 19th straight month of expansion for the manufacturing sector, albeit at a slower pace.
  • […]
  • Job openings decreased to 10.562 million in November from a revised 11.091 million (from 11.033 million) in October.
[…]
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.3% YTD
  • Russell 2000 +1.1% YTD
  • S&P 500 +0.6% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite -0.1% YTD

Overseas: 

  • Europe: DAX +0.8%, FTSE +1.6%, CAC +1.4%
  • Asia: Nikkei +1.8%, Hang Seng +0.1%, Shanghai -0.2%

Commodities: 

  • Crude Oil +0.91 @ 76.96
  • Nat Gas -0.07 @ 3.62
  • Gold +13.00 @ 1815.20
  • Silver +0.16 @ 23.08
  • Copper +0.04 @ 4.47