NASDAQ futures are coming into Thursday gap down after an overnight session featuring extreme volume on normal range. Price was balanced overnight, chopping along the Wednesday low. Sellers defended two whacks up into the midpoint. At 8:30am initial/continuing jobless claims data came out better than expected. As we approach cash open, price is hovering along the Wednesday low, which is a few point below the Wednesday’s close.
Also on the economic calendar today we have leading index at 10am followed by crude oil inventories at 11am.
Be aware that major semiconductor Intel is set to report earnings after the bell. Given the extended nature of the PHLX semiconductor index, a primary driver of our current broad market rally, and that Intel is a major component of that index, these earnings are likely to give some pause to the market, intra-day, then potentially reveal direction into the tail-end of the week.
Yesterday we printed a neutral extreme down. The day began with a gap up beyond the Tuesday high. After a brief two-way auction at the open buyers drove higher, achieving new record highs and briefly pushing range extension up before responsive sellers stepped in and drove price back down through the daily midpoint. From then-on price was choppy, walking all over the midpoint before eventually succumbing to selling pressure late in the session that pushed us range extension down (neutral). The day ended near session low (neutral extreme), with buyers attempting to reject a move back into Tuesday range.
Heading into today my primary expectation is for buyers to work into the overnight inventory and take out overnight high 9210.75. From here we continue higher, tagging 9238.25 before two way trade ensues.
Hypo 2 stronger buyers trade up to 9266 before two way trade ensues.
Hypo 3 sellers press down through overnight low 9173.75, then close the open gap from Tuesday at 919.75. Look for buyers down at 9142.25 and two way trade to ensue.
Levels:
Volume profiles, gaps, and measured moves:
