What Market Players Will Be Watching On Thursday
The September S&P
futures (SPU and ESU) opened Wednesday’s session with a -6.00 point
gap to the downside after a dismal earnings and guidance report from HPQ. The
size of the gap and the closing PREM from Tuesday gave a good probability of at
least a partial gap fill, but after failing to move through the Daily Pivot at
999, long liquidation hit the futures down to the low of the session at 995.75.Â
With no economic reports or other catalysts to play off of, the contract
delivered as advertised, and moved into a 2-point for almost the next hour. The
futures got some reprieve and a pop from an “oldie but a goody” rumor that bin
Laden had been captured. What the rumor failed to mention was that it was
actually Charles Bin Laden (Osama’s third cousin!). Whatever the case, it was
enough to trigger some short-covering and to officially close the opening gap.
The contract spent most of the rest of the session meandering above the magic
1,000 level, before some selling into the close dropped it back down to close
right at the Daily Pivot.
The September S&P 500 futures closed Wednesday’s
session with a loss of -4.00 points, and finished in the middle 1/3 of its daily
range. Volume in the September ES was estimated at 388,000 contracts, which was
behind Tuesday’s pace and still below normal. On a daily basis, the contract
reversed off the hanging man and posted a market structure high. Aside from
daily Stochs moving high, nothing has changed on the support/resistance side
(see chart). On an intraday basis the ES is resting again on its 60-min
trendline and the 3-Line Break chart closed with a short bias and a Break Price
of 1,000. The VIX posted a market structure low, but still remains below 20.
On Thursday morning, we have a few economic reports as market players will be
watching at 8:30 am ET for Weekly Jobless Claims to continue the streak below
400,000. That is followed at 10 am ET by the Leading Economic Indicators report
for July, with a consensus of 0.4% increase, and at 12:00 noon ET by the
Philadelphia Fed report for August, with a consensus of 10.0.
Please feel free to email me with any questions
you might have, and good luck with your trading on Thursday!
P.S. Learn to trade the E-minis in my new
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