S&P 500 didn‘t swing even temporarily higher yesterday, refusing to act on relatively bullish signs from bonds. No turnaround, Nasdaq was also flat – and the volume declined in both. Fresh sellers wanted, nowhere to be found. Well, commodities had a good day, driven by crude oil‘s sharp reversal on Muhammad bin Salman‘s words about potentially reducing output, which the paper markets promptly got. Agricultural stocks also started doing better – ADM, BG, DBA, and the like including CORN.

Yet, copper‘s sharp upswing was rejected at $3.73, as the bulls were unwilling to run too far, too fast. Cryptos not following through entirely on the bullish cues – Ethereum short profits taken off the table – means that we‘re in for a relatively muted upswing (attempt) in stocks. Until the Jackson Hole uncertainty is removed, that is. Given that I look for VIX to remain in the 22.50 – 24 range today, it means a relatively narrow range in the S&P 500 ahead.

To feel the daily pulse, let‘s move right into the charts (all courtesy of www.stockcharts.com) – today‘s full-scale article features good 6 ones.
 

Crude Oil

Crude oil is on a tear, and I look for it to be well bid. Given the run‘s confirmation by oil stocks, that says a lot about stock market prospects (bearish as oil is the shadow Fed funds rate).
 

Copper

Copper is starting to hesitate, and unless $3.74 is broken, has a lot of potentials to correct recent strength. Other base metals appear to agree.
 

Bitcoin and Ethereum

Cryptos are still hesitating, and I am not looking for surprising moves either way today.

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