Market Wrap (recording & summary)

Expiration has likely exacerbated the rally’s productivity. Yellen’s testimony and Trump’s fiscality were only catalysts. The rally’s breakout was broad-based and organic, but now five days later it is more influenced by the mechanics of expiration.

Wednesday duplicated Tuesday’s opening weakness and intraday recovery to new highs in the afternoon. More so, the afternoon bias environment’s highs were probed during the final hour. The three prior sessions gapped up and extended higher only to an afternoon bias environment high. And Wednesday produced the rare double occurrence of no-bias trending.

So, optimism is improving through the day instead of waning, which is potentially bearish from a contrarian perspective. Also, the rally’s sponsorship is increasingly event-based, much more temperamental than organic accumulation. And weak-handed sponsorship is impatiently pushing the afternoon’s higher.

Gapping up again Thursday would once again be vulnerable to a morning of backing-and-filling, as would gapping down — the afternoon’s rally above its 2342.25 bias-up signal was no-bias trending that requires being retraced, potentially down to its 2341.00 1:20 print. Extending higher relentlessly anyway would next target 2366.00 — and if met Friday morning, the bullish WedEX could invert down.

Meanwhile, the WedEX signal triggered actively bullish, easily. Price action is likely to be biased up into and out of the weekend, Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Thursday’s open won’t be able to affect the setup in this particular instance.

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

Monitor overnight Globex trading in the chaRTroom here.