Market Wrap (recording & summary)

Thursday morning’s rally started optimistically short of actually testing Wednesday’s lows, despite attacking them pre-open from fresh overnight highs that had fulfilled “unfinished business above.” But the rally extended almost relentlessly, triggering its 2634.25 bias-up signal and fulfilling its 2641.75 bias-up target as the morning bias environment began lapsing.

Was that impatience? Because that would suggest weak-handed sponsorship, which is potentially bearish from a contrarian perspective.

In fact, the rally essentially peaked at its target, fluctuating 2 points centered around 2641.75 through the noon hour. And a blip-up barely touched the afternoon’s 2643.50 bias-up signal before triggering no-bias for the afternoon. Sideways ranging broke lower as the bias environment began lapsing.

Anxiousness often paralyzes Thursday afternoons ahead of Friday Employment Situation reports. Excessive optimism ahead of the reports often portends a bearish reaction to the news, or reversing an initially favorable knee-jerk reaction up. So, the question is whether the morning’s optimism was neutralized by Thursday afternoon’s partial retracement of it back down to 2635.25 — most of which was recovered through the futures 2642.50 settlement.

Details and other markets coverage are discussed in the post-market Wrap recording here.

Monitor overnight Globex trading in the chaRTroom here.