Stocks are mixed today, with the S&P 500 up about 30 bps, while the NASDAQ is trading up nearly 80 bps. Otherwise, Asia was mixed, and Europe is rebounding some from last week’s sell-off.
The market took a bit of a jump higher around 6:40 AM, on the typical vaccine dump. This time from Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) about starting a phase 3 trial. Now you know why everyone rushes into the market every Friday afternoon. No surprise I guess. It really is a joke.
S&P 500
The market find itself in an interesting spot today, trading at the upper end of their trading range in the US, with the S&P 500 Emini needing to push through and make a new cycle high.
It is beginning to look like there is a chance a the futures have room to rise a bit further perhaps to 3,312. However, there appears to be a rising wedge pattern that has formed in the e-minis. Normally, that is a bearish pattern, but lately, that has also served as a bullish pattern as well. I have to admit, I have rarely seen in the past, but recently it seems to be bullish a lot. It gives me very little confidence in making a call.
Still, 3,200 is the most critical level for the bears.
A lot of what happens will depend on what happens with ISM Manufacturing data at 10 AM; Estimates are for 53.5.
Microsoft
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is now in talks to buy the US side of TikTok. I’m not sure how I feel about it overall. It takes Microsoft out of its principal business, but it could ad some meaningful revenue as well. We will need to see how the market responds to it. Right now, the stock is rising and seems to like the news.
I think the news on TikTok is a definite negative for Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
Anyway, that is all I’m going to have today. There likely won’t be a PM edition today. I will be having a procedure done today and will be out of commission for the rest of today and probably tomorrow.