Actionable ideas to manage the choppy trade across E-mini S&P, E-mini NQ, Crude Oil, Gold, and Silver (futures).
E-mini S&P (March) / E-mini NQ (March)
S&P, last week’s close: Settled at 5101.50, up 3.75 on Friday and 81.75 on the week
NQ, yesterday’s close: Settled at 17,991.00, down 56.50 on Friday and up 247.00 on the week
E-mini S&P and E-mini NQ futures finished off a strong week with a more or less quiet Friday, highlighted by an upper tail. This does signal we could be in store for a healthy consolidation. In such a case, we want to see a constructive response to Thursday’s opening range. For the E-mini S&P, this is 5076.75 on the upper-end and 5052.25-5054.50 on the lower-end. The 5066.50 previous high aligns to create rare major four-star support within the thick of that range, and detailed below. If these areas of support become surrendered intraday and followed by a close below, we are then expecting a more elongated pull-back in the near-term. Until then, the bulls are in the driver’s seat.
Bias: Neutral/Bullish
Resistance: 5116.25, 5123.50, 5131.50, 5146.75**, 5196.50-5200
Pivot: 5097.75-5101.50
Support: 5091.75, 5082.75, 5076.75, 5060-5066.50, 5052.25-5054.50, 5041.25, 5020.50-5021.75, 5009.25-5012.75, 4996.75-4997.75***
NQ (March)
Resistance: 18,066-18,071**, 18,109-18,144, 18,366
Pivot: 17,962-17,991
Support: 17,935-17,946, 17,905, 17,849-17,860* 17,724-17,758, 17,614, 17,536-17,545, 17,372-17,436****
Crude Oil (April)
Yesterday’s close: Settled at 76.49, down 2.12 on Friday and 1.97 on the week
Despite a strong close Thursday, the bulls could not accomplish a breakout above significant resistance, edited to be a rare major four-star level at 78.61-78.72. It is also important to note, there are several levels out above this aligning with failure and gap closes, detailed in our levels below. Price action is now testing into a floor created from the February 8th surge and underpinned by major three-star support at 75.49-75.52; a constructive response here could encourage a move back into the thick of last week’s range.
Bias: Neutral/Bullish
Resistance: 76.89, 77.60-77.67, 78.23, 78.61-78.72, 78.92-79.09, 79.36-79.66****
Pivot: 76.32-76.66
Support: 75.85, 75.49-75.52, 74.96, 73.91-74.14, 73.03*, 72.30, 71.49-71.84
Gold (April) / Silver (March)
Gold, yesterday’s close: Settled 2049.4, up 18.7 on Friday and 25.3 on the week
Silver, yesterday’s close: Settled at 22.982, up 0.198 on Friday and down 0.493 on the week
Choppy, choppy, choppy; what else is there to describe such a directionless tape? Despite encouragement with the surge through midday Friday, once again Sunday night quickly eroded the progress. Today is the expiration of March options, and if price action can continue to respond to support, we would like to think it could work higher into the month-end, but at the end of the day precious metals complex has only dashed hopes.
Bias: Neutral/Bullish
Resistance: 2047.3-2051.9, 2057.2-2061.3, 2067.4, 2071.5-2073
Pivot: 2042
Support: 2034.2-2037.3, 2029.7-2030.7, 2023.3-2026.5, 2014.9-2016.7, 2007.1-2008.8, 2001.8-2003.3, 1993.3-1997.3, 1980-1987.9**
Silver (March)
Resistance: 22.98-23.05, 23.20-23.23, 23.43-23.64, 23.95-24.15*
Pivot: 22.72-22.80
Support: 22.43-22.51, 21.97-22.15