Morning Notes – Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are higher at 8:15 AM; up almost 100 points from the 4:30 PM low of 4148.25; rising since 6:45 after a small retreat
  • The odds are for an up day with elevated volatility; watch for a break below 4226.25
  • Key economic data report due during the day:
    • JOLTS Job Openings (10.96M est.; prev. -10.93B) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

  • Weekly: In Correction
  • Daily: In Correction
  • 120-Min: Down-Side
  • 30-Min: Down-Side
  • 15-Min: Side-Up
  • 6-Min: Side-Up

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4198.03, 4157.87, and 4114.65
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4276.98, 4291.77, and 4318.98
  • Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4249.50, the high of 8:00 AM and break below 4226.25, the low of 6:45 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2022) closed at 4165.25 and the index closed at 4170.70 – a spread of about -5.50 points; futures closed at 4168.75 for the day; the fair value is -3.50
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +79.75; Dow by +533; and NASDAQ by +297.75

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed mixed – Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo closed lower; Sydney, Mumbai, and Singapore closed up; Seoul was closed for trading
  • European markets are higher
  • Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
    Up Down
    • Dollar index
    • USD/JPY
    • USD/CHF
    • AUD/USD
    • NZD/USD
    • INR/USD
    • USD/CAD
    • EUR/USD
    • GBP/USD
  • Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
    • Energy futures are higher
    • Precious metals are higher
    • Industrial metals are higher
    • Soft commodities are mixed
  • Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
    • 10-years yield closed at 1.872%, down -7.6 basis points from two weeks ago;
    • 30-years is at 2.244%, down -0.9 basis points;
    • 2-years yield is at 1.605%, up +4.3 basis points;
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.267, down from 0.386
    • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.372, up from 0.305
  • VIX
    • At 33.06 @ 7:00 AM; down from the last close; below the 5-day SMA;
    • Recent high = 37.79 on February 24; low = 23.88 on February 16
    • Sentiment: Risk-On (High-Volatility)

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 March 4 was a red spinning top candle
    • Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is just above %D around 30; potential Bullish Divergence
    • RSI-9 is just below 40
  • The week was down -55.78 or -1.3%; the 5-week ATR  is 188.03
  • A down week; third in the last five weeks, and sixth in the previous ten weeks
  • The weekly pivot point=4341.73, R1=4403.92, R2=4478.97; S1=4266.68, S2=4024.49; No pivot levels were breached
  • Below 10-week EMA and 39-week SMA; above 89-week SMA
  • In Correction
Daily
  • A red candle with a small lower shadow and an upper shadow twice the size of the real body;
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is  below %D below 20
    • RSI-9 is just above 30; below 8-day EMA;
  • Below 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day SMA, 200-day SMA
  • In Correction
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
  • Downtrend since 4:00 AM on January 4; new leg down since 8:00 AM on March 3 high of 4418.75; trying to bounce from a low of 4138.75 made at midnight on March 8;
    • RSI-21 bounced up to above 50 from near 25 after making a Hidden Divergence;
    • At/below EMA20, which is below EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Down-Side
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • Bounced up from 4:30 PM low of 4148.25 to above 4240.00;
    • RSI-21 has risen to near 60 from just above 40
    • Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Down-Size
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
  • The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is drifting up since 9:00 PM
  • The Bollinger Band is contracting a bit since 6:15 AM;
    • Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is above %D since 6:45 AM;
  • Bias:  Side-Up

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly lower on Tuesday, March 8, in mostly higher volume. Russell 2000 closed higher and Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in lower volume. Major indices opened lower and then traded sideways for a couple of hours before advancing deep into positive territory. However, the indices declined in the afternoon and closed near the lows.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 lost 0.7% on Tuesday in a volatile session driven by geopolitical headlines. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.3%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.6%) joined the benchmark index in negative territory, while the Russell 2000 (+0.6%) closed higher.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed lower, including the defensive-oriented consume staples (-2.6%), health care (-2.1%), and utilities (-1.6%) sectors at the bottom of the standings. The energy (+1.4%) and consumer discretionary (+0.1%) sectors closed higher.

[…]

The 2-yr yield rose nine basis points to 1.63%, and the 10-yr yield rose 12 basis points to 1.87%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.2% to 99.06.

[…]
  • The trade deficit widened in January to $89.7 billion (Briefing.com consensus -$87.5 billion) from a downwardly revised $82.0 billion (from -$80.7 billion). Exports were $3.9 billion less than December exports and imports were $3.8 billion more than December imports.
  • […]
  • Wholesale inventories increased 0.8% in January, as expected, following a revised 2.6% increase (from 2.2%) in December.
  • The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for February decreased to 95.7 from 97.1 in January.
[…]
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average -10.2% YTD
  • S&P 500 -12.5% YTD
  • Russell 2000 -12.6% YTD
  • Nasdaq Composite -18.2% YTD

Overseas: 

  • Europe: DAX -0.0%, FTSE +0.1%, CAC -0.3%
  • Asia: Nikkei -1.7%, Hang Seng -1.4%, Shanghai -2.4%

Commodities: 

  • Crude Oil +4.49 @ 123.76
  • Nat Gas -0.30 @ 4.57
  • Gold +50.80 @ 2047.30
  • Silver +1.00 @ 26.76
  • Copper -0.01 @ 4.74
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