Key Takeaways:
- Decline in cash levels is a sign of stretched sentiment.
- Positioning: Odds of sustained directional resolve low.
- Potential confirmation of multi-month balance-break.
What Happened: During last week’s shortened holiday trade, U.S. index futures broke out to new all-time highs.
What Does It Mean: After Tuesday’s initiative upside drive alongside news that provided clarity on the election transition, participants rotated back over the $3,580 balance-area boundary, invalidating the prior week’s initiative selling activity. Thereafter, conviction disappeared and the market remained range-bound, as evidenced by a non-participatory delta (i.e., the non-presence of committed buying) and mechanical trade (i.e., low-excess at the edges of developing balance).
What To Expect: During Friday’s shortened holiday session, the S&P 500 remained in balance, further auctioning and accepting value into Tuesday’s excess high, which marked an end to the upside discovery process.
Given that initiative buyers remained in control after auctioning into the micro-composite high-volume node at $3,631, the fairest price to do business after Tuesday’s upside drive, participants come into Monday’s session knowing the following:
- The amount of cash investors are holding in their portfolios fell to levels last seen prior to the February sell-off.
- Market sentiment, as represented by Citigroup Inc’s (NYSE: C) Panic/Euphoria Model, is historically stretched.
- Tuesday’s upside impulse, through the low-volume node at $3,580, was reminiscent of short-term, momentum-driven buying.
- Holiday trade was dominated by low-volume and responsive participation, implying the non-presence of conviction and institutions (e.g., funds that transact at non-technical levels).
- Positioning suggests dealers are long gamma, meaning they sell into strength and buy into weakness, suppressing volatility and the potential for directional resolve.
Therefore, given the acceptance of higher prices, the following frameworks for next week’s trade apply.
If participants manage to spend time and build value above the $3,631 micro-composite high-volume node, then initiative buyers remain in control — nearest targets include the $3,655 and $3,668.75 rally highs.
Otherwise, the auction ought to find responsive buyers near the high-volume node. An initiative drive below that figure would put the rally on hold, and would target first $3,620, and then the node near $3,610.
Conclusion: Though sentiment and positioning imply limited potential for further upside, the market remains in a strong technical uptrend bolstered by factors including a divided government, vaccine administration, rebound in profits, low rates, and a small rise in the yield curve.
As of now, the S&P 500 is on the verge of confirming a multi-month balance-break.
Levels Of Interest: Micro-composite HVN at $3,631, the $3,655 and $3,668.75 rally highs, as well as the nodes near $3,620 and $3,610.