The S&P 500 is slouching toward a weekly loss on this jobs-report day, dogged by chatter about a “tech wreck.”
But no one should be surprised by the stock market’s latest moves, says CrackedMarket’s Jani Ziedins, delivering our call of the day.
“This market has been moving in 100-point increments since early spring,” he writes in a note to his subscribers.
“We bounced off of 2,800 support a few weeks back, and it is now time to rest after cracking 2,900. Nothing more, nothing less.”
His chart below shows the S&P stepping from 2,600 to 2,700, then to 2,800, and finally, 2,900 — taking breathers along the way. The trader and writer has shared the graphic in a blog post that isn’t behind a paywall.
“I cannot predict the future, but when the market keeps doing the same thing over and over again, it isn’t hard to figure out what comes next,” he writes in that post.
Ziedins advises against jumping in at this point, even as his take suggests that traders might want to get their “S&P 3,000” hats ready.
“It is still a little too early to buy the dip,” he says. “In a perfect world, we crash all the way down to 2,800 support before bouncing.”
Key market gauges
Futures for the Dow YMU8, -0.31% , S&P 500 ESU8, -0.22% and Nasdaq-100 NQU8, -0.32% are lower, after the Dow DJIA, -0.31% closed slightly higher yesterday, but the S&P SPX, -0.22% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.25% fell for a third day in a row. The Dow is up 0.1% for the week, as of Thursday’s close, while the S&P and Naz are down by 0.8% and 2.3%, respectively.
Europe SXXP, +0.08% is dropping, after Asia mostly closed with losses. Oil CLV8, +0.13% and gold GCZ8, -0.21% are down a bit, while the dollar index DXY, +0.33% is up a little. Bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.37% is trading around $6,400.
The quote
“I mean it’s legal, right?” — Tesla’s Elon Musk has raised some eyebrows by appearing to smoke marijuana on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast last night.
Rogan had said this to Musk: “You probably can’t because of stockholders, right?”
Musk also said he has a design for an electric plane, and he became emotional in talking about humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Tesla’s stock TSLA, -6.30% recently traded about 5% lower in premarket action on Friday, with news that Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton had resigned among the factors weighing on shares.
The buzz
This week’s big economic release arrived before the open. The jobs report showed the U.S. economy added 201,000 jobs last month, basically matching forecasts for 200K, while also revealing higher worker pay.
Broadcom AVGO, +7.69% , Palo Alto Networks PANW, +3.29% , Marvell Technology MRVL, -0.05% and Five Below FIVE, +13.31% look set for up days after their results late yesterday, while GameStop GME, -0.06% appears headed in the other direction.
Ahead of the opening bell, Genesco GCO, +1.06% — the parent for Journeys, Lids and other retail chains — posted better-than-expected results.
On the Federal Reserve front, the Boston Fed’s Eric Rosengren has pointed out a downside to the recent tax cuts, and he wants to hike interest rates until they limit economic growth. The Dallas Fed’s Robert Kaplan is slated to speak around lunchtime.
In Washington news, President Trump told supporters in Montana last night that if he’s impeached, it’s their fault. And he reportedly won’t answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller about obstruction of justice.
The U.S. has charged a North Korean in connection with the 2014 Sony SNE, +0.30% Pictures hack, and British Airways, owned by IAG IAG, -1.35% , says it was hacked.
The front runner in Brazil’s presidential race, Jair Bolsonaro, was stabbed yesterday in a near-fatal attack.
The chart
The handy chart above shows which U.S. states would be hit hardest by a prolonged trade war with China. It comes from Oxford Economics via the Daily Shot newsletter.
Trump has been getting an earful from American businesses, as his proposed tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods could go into effect as soon as today. The president also has suggested a trade fight with Japan is coming.
