Briefly:

Intraday trade: Our Wednesday’s intraday trading outlook was neutral. It proved accurate, because the S&P 500 gained 0.1% following neutral opening of the trading session. The broad stock market extended its short-term fluctuations. We still can see medium-term technical overbought conditions. However, there have been no confirmed negative signals so far. Therefore, we prefer to be out of the market again, avoiding low risk/reward ratio trades.

Our intraday outlook is neutral today. Our short-term outlook is neutral, and our medium-term outlook is neutral:

Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): neutral
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): neutral
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral

The U.S. stock market indexes gained 0.05-0.10% on Wednesday, extending their short-term consolidation, as investors continued to hesitate following the early December rally. The S&P 500 index trades around 0.4% below last week’s Monday’s new all-time high of 2,694.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the technology Nasdaq Composite were virtually flat yesterday. The nearest important level of support of the S&P 500 index remains at around 2,680, marked by last week’s Monday’s daily gap up of 2,679.63-2,685.92. The next support level is at 2,670, marked by recent consolidation. The level of support is also at 2,640-2,650, marked by the December 8 daily gap up of 2,640.99-2,644.10. On the other hand, the nearest important level of resistance is at 2,685, marked by local high. The next resistance level is at around 2,695-2,700, marked by new all-time high. There have been no confirmed negative signals so far. However, we still can see medium-term technical overbought conditions along with negative technical divergences:

Positive Expectations

Expectations before the opening of today’s trading session are positive, with index futures currently up 0.1-0.3% vs. their Wednesday’s closing prices. The European stock market indexes have been mixed so far. Investors will wait for some economic data announcements: Initial Claims, Trade Balance, Wholesale Inventories at 8:30 a.m., Chicago PMI number at 9:45 a.m., Crude Oil Inventories at 10:30 a.m. The market expects that the Chicago PMI was at 62.2 in December, and Initial Claims were at 240,000 last week. The S&P 500 futures contract trades within an intraday uptrend, as it extends its yesterday’s rebound off support level at around 2,680. The nearest important level of resistance is at 2,690-2,700, marked by record high. The futures contract remains just below its resistance level, as the 15-minute chart shows: