S&P 500 Technical Analysis – US NFP in focus

Last
week, the Fed hiked the interest rates by
25 bps
as widely expected keeping everything unchanged. Fed Chair Powell
reiterated their data dependency and kept all the options on the table. The
economic data since the FOMC meeting has been pretty solid and the labour
market indicators keep on running hot. This week we got a selloff that began
with the rating agency Fitch downgrading US credit
rating
to AA+ from AAA and then extended further as the US ADP report
came in hot again.

S&P 500 Technical
Analysis – Daily Timeframe

On the daily chart, we can see that we already had
a divergence with the
MACD coming
into the key 4628 resistance level.
This is generally a sign of weakening momentum often followed by pullbacks or
reversals. If this is a pullback, we should see the buyers piling in here near
the 4494 support. The sellers, on the other hand, will want to see the price
breaking below the support to increase the selling pressure and take the
S&P 500 into the trendline.

S&P 500 Technical
Analysis – 4 hour Timeframe

On the 4 hour chart, we can see that the S&P
500 recently broke below a key support zone and it’s now pulling back to
probably retest it. This is where we should find the sellers leaning on this support turned resistance where we
can find the confluence with the
38.2% Fibonacci retracement level
and the red 21 moving average. The
buyers, on the other hand, will need to break above this resistance with
conviction to invalidate the bearish setup and target a break above the 4628
high.

S&P 500 Technical
Analysis – 1 hour Timeframe

On the 1 hour chart, we can see more
closely the current pullback towards the resistance with a counter-trendline
defining the short-term bullish momentum as we can also see from the crossover
of the moving averages. If the price breaks below the counter-trendline, the
sellers are likely to pile in and target a break below the 4494 support.

Upcoming Events

Today, all eyes will be on the US NFP
report. The Fed will see another NFP report before the next meeting so this one
won’t decide what they are going to do but it can change market expectations,
nonetheless. It’s hard to see what the market is going to do with this data,
but a strong report should weigh on the S&P 500 as the market would expect
the Fed to remain hawkish and weak readings are likely to cause a selloff as
the market may start to fear a recession on the horizon. The technicals here
should be more helpful to manage risk and position in line with the flow.

See also the video below:

This article was written by FL Contributors at www.forexlive.com. Source