S&P 500 Futures: Just Another Day At The Office

Index Futures Net Changes and Settlements:

Foreign Markets, Fair Value and Volume:

• In Asia 5 out of 11 markets closed higher: Shanghai Comp +0.91%, Hang Seng +0.43%, Nikkei -0.44%
• In Europe 9 out of 12 markets are trading higher: CAC +0.07%, DAX +0.40%, FTSE -0.41%
• Fair Value: S&P +1.78, NASDAQ +13.31, Dow -10.56
• Total Volume: 1.5mil ESH & 1.6k SPH traded in the pit

Today’s Economic and Earnings Calendar:

Housing Starts 8:30 AM ET, Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey 8:30 AM ET, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index 9:45 AM ET, EIA Natural Gas Report 10:30 AM ET, EIA Petroleum Status Report 11:00 AM ET, Fed Balance Sheet 4:30 PM ET, and Money Supply 4:30 PM ET; Fedspeak — Loretta Mester Speaks 6:05 PM ET.

One Day Drop And A Big Pop; Dow Closes Above 26,000 and S&P Clears 2800

Yesterday, the foreign markets were quiet, but Bitcoin wasn’t. Bitcoin fell as low as $9,966 Wednesday, a 50% drop from it’s all time high. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, It’s an unregulated product, and people are now getting what they paid for.

You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up…

After selling off hard on Tuesday, the S&P regained its losses on Wednesday. It’s all about the one day drops, and then the pop. It was all sell programs and sell stops on Tuesday, and all buy stops and buy programs Wednesday. Helping power the markets higher were comments by APPLE that the tech giant plans $350 billion in capital spending in the U.S. over five years that will create more than 20,000 new jobs.

The ES opened at the 2789.00 level, dropped down to 3785.75 in the first minute, rallied a few handles, and then got hit by a sell program that pulled the future down to 2780.50. From there, the futures rallied up to 2785.75, made a higher low by 1 tick at 2780.75, and then traded up to 2788.50 before falling back down to another higher low at 2783.75. After the move down, the ES double topped at the 2788.50 level, made another higher low at 2785.00, and then shot up to 2793.50, three ticks off the globex high.

There was another drop down to the 2791.00 level, and then the ES traded back up to the Globex high at 2794.25, triggering several big buy programs that pushed the ES all the way up to 2801.00 at 12:45 CT. By 2:10 CT it was trading at another new all-time contract high at 2809.50, up 26.50 handles, or +0.95%. After 2:00 the MiM started to show $1.34 billion to buy the ES sold off down to 2804.25, rallied back up to 2808.50, and finished the day on a small down tick at 2803.75, up 20.75 handles, or +0.75%.

This is all about sticking with the trend and following the patterns. While there were lots of 1 and 2 day pullbacks last year, most of them were immediately followed by a rally / new highs. Of the two down day days this year, both day were followed by new highs the next day.

You just can’t make this stuff up…

As always, please use protective buy and sell stops when trading futures and options.

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_{Disclaimer: Trading Futures, Options on Futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge, and financial resources. Any decision to purchase or sell as a result of the opinions expressed in the forum will be the full responsibility of the person(s) authorizing such transaction(s). BE ADVISED TO ALWAYS USE PROTECTIVE STOP LOSSES AND ALLOW FOR SLIPPAGE TO MANAGE YOUR TRADE(S) AS AN INVESTOR COULD LOSE ALL OR MORE THAN THEIR INITIAL INVESTMENT. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.}