White House To Limit Chinese Stocks In Pension Fund

Index Futures Net Changes and Settlements:

Foreign Markets, Fair Value and Volume:

• In Asia 9 out of 11 markets closed higher: Shanghai Comp +0.29%, Hang Seng +0.28%, Nikkei +0.99%
• In Europe 13 out of 13 markets are trading lower: CAC -1.07%, DAX -1.09%, FTSE -0.25%
• Fair Value: S&P -1.05, NASDAQ -12.88, Dow -45.91
• Total Volume: 1.26 million ESZ & 368 SPZ traded in the pit

_{*As of 7:00 a.m. CST}

Today’s Economic Calendar:

Today’s economic calendar includes the 8-Week Bill Settlement, NFIB Small Business Optimism Index 6:00 AM ET, PPI-FD 8:30 AM ET, Redbook 8:55 AM ET, Charles Evans Speaks 1:35 PM ET, Jerome Powell Speaks 1:50 PM ET, and Neel Kashkari Speaks 5:00 PM ET.

S&P 500 Futures: Trumps Balancing Act

Chart courtesy of Scott Redler @RedDogT3 – RDR sell and buy signals have really helped a lot lately to tell us who’s winning the active battles each day! Yesterday’s RDR at 2952 helped us get flat again. (Not short) but flat is half the battle. $spx 2918 area will be pretty important.

The S&P 500 futures gapped 21.25 handles lower to open Sunday nights Globex session at 2929.75. After quickly printing what would be the session low at 2928.00, the ESU turned its sights higher, rallying 18 handles to print an overnight high at 2946.75, before backing off a little to open Monday’s regular trading hours (RTH) at 2941.50.

The first move after the 8:30 CT bell was a dip down to the RTH low at 2934.25, followed by a steady 2 hour long rally up to a new session high at 2955.00. From there, the futures did a little back-and-fill down to 2944.50, then, just after 12:30, a China trade headline hit the tape saying that the Chinese Commerce Ministry is ready to do a deal on the parts of the negotiations both sides agree upon, and the ES immediately ripped up 2959.50.

After that, a second headline came out saying the Chinese Commerce Ministry said there never will be changes to their laws to protect intellectual property, and futures promptly dropped back down to 2938.75. 

Once the headline dust had settled, the ES rallied up to 2948.25 at 2:27, as the MiM started to show over $550 million to sell, then traded back down to 2941.50 at 2:38. The futures would then go on to print 2942.50 on the 2:45 cash imbalance reveal, as the final MiM showed over $2 billion to sell MOC, then printed 2937.00 on the 3:00 cash close, and settled at 2937.50 on the 3:15 futures close, down -13.35 handles, or -0.45% on the day.

In the end, despite the China and Turkish headlines, it was a fairly quiet day. In terms of the ES’s overall tone, it seems like most of the selling dried up from Sunday nights 18 handle drop. In terms of the days overall volume, it was low, with only 1.2 million futures contracts traded. 

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

_{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.}