Pre-market update (updated 9am eastern):

• European markets are trading 1.5% lower.
• Asian markets traded traded in a wide range between -1.6% up to +0.1%. 
• US futures are moderately lower ahead of the bell. 

Economic reports due out (all times are eastern): MBA Purchase Applications (7am), ICSC-Goldman Store Sales (7:45am), Redbook (8:55am)

Technical Outlook (SPX):

• After a huge surge higher initially, the SPX gave up more than half  of the day’s gains, casting a bearish tone by the end of day. 
• The VIX was notably higher, consistently throughout the day. 
• With today’s gap down, it is worth reminding the difficulty that the bears have with holding their gains beyond the first hour of trading. Both Thursday and Friday last week, we saw the dip buyers come in and buy up the market after the gap downs. 
• Key short-term level to watch today is 1635. If we break below this level, we will be below the 20-day moving average as well  last week’s lows that were established. 
• We have some bullish tweezer candlesticks from 5/23-4 with the long lower shadows that are formed. 
• We are well off of overbought levels here. 
• I wouldn’t discount the likelihood of us trading back up towards 1670’s and created a new area of consolidation. 
• That has been the pattern of late…Consolidation…Big Breakout….Consolidation….Big Breakout…. Rinse/repeat.
• A push below 1597 would be necessary to get the month of May in the red. 
• The long-term trend-line off of the February lows sits at 1616 today, and likely safe from the reaches of the market for now.
• 30-minute chart shows a potential double bottom forming. Also a possible lower-higher – which would create conflicting signals. 
• We are up seven straight months, the last time we saw such a rally was when the market bottomed in 2009. 
• Markets don’t care about the economy. That is not what is driving them. The markets only care about what the Fed is doing to keep equities propped up. 
• We haven’t seen a market pullback in excess of 4% since October/November time-frame. 

My Opinions & Trades:

• Added HUM at $80.60.
• Added AMZN at $267.21. 
• Will look to add 1-2 new positions today if the market can bounce. 
• Long HLIT at 6.08, CVS at $59.02.
• Join me each day for all my real-time trades and alerts in the SharePlanner Splash Zone

Chart for SPX: