Post-open Review… Settling in.

Volatile reaction to payrolls defines the open’s range.

There were two knee-jerk reactions to the pre-open Employment Situation report. It was greeted at 2904.00 and spiked up to 2915.00. That included almost 3 points of errant ticks. Its immediate reaction back down extended 17 point to 2898.25.

The next reaction can’t be considered knee-jerk because of the elapsed time. But it was almost as dramatic, surging 13 points to test 2911.00.

That’s a lot of volatility to compress into a brief window. Especially pre-open, which inhibits post-open sponsorship. More so, greeting the open essentially unchanged reflects just that, no sponsorship. It took several minutes before starting to firm, ultimately to touch 2914.00 resistance. And it took several minutes there before starting to fall and then test 2903.00.

Still, despite post-open trending attempts finally emerging, another bounce has taken price back to unchanged.

The initial bounce held a test of the 2911.00 bias-up signal, putting into play an offsetting test of the 2900.25 bias-down signal. Testing it this morning should define the window’s lower-end, and then be vulnerable to break lower. Probing it this morning would be required to retrace 2900.25 before being reliable for breaking lower, while being vulnerable to recovering.