This morning, the S&P 500 Index e-mini futures (ES-M3) are trading higher by 6.00 points to $1540.00 per contract. It seems that the major stock indexes are trading slightly higher ahead of the opening bell. Traders and investors must be prepared for the endless earnings reports that are being released at this time. Today, is also options expiration for the month of April so traders should expect volatility throughout the first couple hours of the trading session. Normally, the major stock indexes will end the Friday trading session flat to slightly positive by the closing bell.
Last night, most of the leading Asian stock markets ended higher on the session. The big winner was the important and highly followed Shanghai Index (China) closing higher by 2.14 percent. This tells us that the Chinese ADR's could be strong today if the U.S. markets are strong. Some of the leading Chinese ADR's in the market are Baidu Inc. ADR (BIDU), Sohu.com Inc (SOHU), China Mobile Ltd. ADR (CHL), and Netease Inc. ADR (NTES). Traders may also want to watch the base and industrial metal stocks which could also be in play today on the back of the strong Chinese market.
Below you may find the video.