Morning Notes – Thursday, February 10, 2022

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are lower 8:30 AM; declined more than 40 points since the release of the CPI report at 8:30 AM
  • The odds are for a down day with elevated volatility; watch for a break above 4577.50 for a change of fortunes
  • Key economic data report due during the day:
    • CPI ( 0.6% vs. 0.4% est.; prev. 0.5%) at 8:30 AM
    • Core CPI ( 0.6% vs. 0.5% est.; prev. 0.6%) at 8:30 AM
    • Unemployment Claims (223K vs. 227K est.; prev. 239K) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

  • Weekly: Correction
  • Daily: Confirmed Uptrend
  • 120-Min: Side-Up
  • 30-Min: Up-Side
  • 15-Min: Up-Side
  • 6-Min: Side-Up

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4547.00, 4531.32, 4494.38
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4568.13, 4577.24, and 4595.31
  • Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4577.50, the high of 8:30 AM and break below 4534.75, the low of 8:30 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2022) closed at 4579.50 and the index closed at 4587.18 – a spread of about -7.75 points; futures closed at 4577.75 for the day; the fair value is +1.75
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -32.75; Dow by -95; and NASDAQ by -173.75

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed higher
  • European markets are higher
  • Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
    Up Down
    • EUR/USD
    • GBP/USD
    • USD/JPY
    • USD/CHF
    • AUD/USD
    • NZD/USD
    • USD/CAD
    • Dollar index
    • INR/USD
  • Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
    • Energy futures are mixed
    • Precious metals are mixed
    • Industrial metals are mostly lower
    • Soft commodities are mostly higher
  • Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
    • 10-years yield closed at 1.929%, up +8.1 basis points from two weeks ago;
    • 30-years is at 2.232%, up +6.5 basis points;
    • 2-years yield is at 1.345%, up +19.8 basis points;
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.584, down from 0.701
    • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.303, down from 0.319
  • VIX
    • At 20.58 @ 7:45 AM; up from the last close; below the 5-day SMA;
    • Recent high = 26.26 on February 4; low = 20.46 on February 2
    • Sentiment: Risk-Off

The trend and patterns in 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 February 2 was a green candle  with a long upper shadow and almost no lower shadow
    • Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is crossing above %D from near zero
    • RSI-9 has turned up; just below 40
  • The week was up +33.91 or +1.5%; the 5-week ATR  is 200.38
  • An up week; second in the last five weeks, and fifth in the previous ten weeks
  • The weekly pivot point=4504.29, R1=4592.55, R2=4684.58; S1=4411.26, S2=4322.00; R1 pivot level was breached
  • Below 10-week EMA and 39-week SMA; above 89-week SMA
  • In Correction
Daily
  • A green candle with almost no upper and lower shadows that gapped from the previous candle;
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is above %D; near 100
    • RSI-9 is approaching 60; above 8-day EMA;
  • Above 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day SMA, and 200-day SMA
  • Confirmed Uptrend
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
  • Moving up since 10:00 AM on February 8; forming a saucer pattern since 6:00 AM on February 2; broke above the downtrend line from the all-time highs; downtrend since January 4 – lower lows and lower highs;
    • RSI-21 is moving up; above 70
    • Above EMA 20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Side-Up
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • Forming a saucer pattern since 7:30 AM on February 2 within an 80-point range; moving sideways to up since 3:00 PM on Wednesday
    • RSI-21 is moving above 60
    • Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Up-Side
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is moving up since 12:45 AM;
  • The Bollinger Band is relatively narrow
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is crisscrossing %D
  • Bias: Up-Side

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Wednesday, February 9, in mixed volume. NASDAQ Composite and Russell 2000 traded in lower volume. The indices gapped up at the open and gradually drifted higher for the rest of the day.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 gained 1.5% on Wednesday, as investors were encouraged about the COVID-19 outlook and the ability for the market to hold onto early gains. The Nasdaq Composite (+2.1%) and Russell 2000 (+1.9%) each rose about 2.0% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%.

[…]

All 11 S&P 500 sectors closed higher after registering most, if not all, of their gains at the open. The communication services (+2.5%), real estate (+2.4%), information technology (+2.3%), and materials (+2.1%) sectors gained more than 2.0%. The consumer staples sector (+0.02%) closed fractionally higher.

[…]

The 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 1.93% amid a strong $37 billion 10-yr note auction

[…]

The 2-yr yield settled unchanged at 1.34%,

[…]

The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.1% to 95.54. WTI crude futures increased 0.3%, or $0.22, to $89.65/bbl.

Separately, the Nasdaq 100 (+2.1%) closed above its 200-day moving average (15,048) after seeing technical resistance at that level earlier in the day.

[…]
  • Wholesale inventories increased 2.2% m/m in December (Briefing.com consensus 2.0%) following a revised 1.7% increase (from 1.4%) in November.
  • The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index fell 8.1% following a 12.0% increase in the prior week.
[…]
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average -1.6% YTD
  • S&P 500 -3.8% YTD
  • Russell 2000 -7.2% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite -7.4% YTD

Overseas: 

  • Europe: DAX +1.6%, FTSE +1.0%, CAC +1.5%
  • Asia: Nikkei +1.1%, Hang Seng +2.1%, Shanghai +0.8%

Commodities: 

  • Crude Oil +0.16 @ 89.48
  • Nat Gas -0.24 @ 3.99
  • Gold +4.00 @ 1833.60
  • Silver +0.02 @ 23.27
  • Copper +0.16 @ 4.63