What’s been happening is, the Asian and European markets push higher overnight, and the ES goes for the ride. It really seems that if you want to trade the S&P 500 futures, you have watch the the globex shift, because when the futures move overnight, it uses up most of the early morning trade.
Friday morning the S&P 500 futures (ESZ17:CME) gapped up to the 2602.00 level, traded up to a new all-time contract high at 2602.50, and then pulled back down to 2599.25, one tick under the vwap, at 9:33. The next move was up to 2602.75 at 10:22, and then up to the 2603.00 objective I have been talking about for the last month. On the 12:00 cash close the ES traded 2601.50. Volume was pitiful, only 380,000 contracts traded. After a small pullback, the ES traded back up to 2602.75 and then sold off a few ticks before closing at 2601.50, + 4.5 handles.
The ES marked its first close above 2600.00, its second-fastest run to a round-number milestone on record. The S&P took 49 days to go from 2500 to 2600, a climb whose speed was exceeded only by the 35-day surge from 1000 to 1100 in 1998.
The S&P 500 has already had a strong year, up 16%. On Friday, it made its 55th closing high, its most records in a calendar year in more than two decades. The Nasdaq has also posted the most record closes in a single year, notching its 69th on Friday, while the Dow industrials have hit 60 highs.
In the end, there was a very low level of participation, and volume was scarce. At the end of Friday’s half day session, S&P 500 futures (ESZ17:CME) settled at 2601.00, up +6.5 handles, or +0.24%; the Dow Jones futures (YMZ17:CBT) settled at 23,517, up +32 points, or +0.13%; the Nasdaq 100 futures (NQZ17:CME) settled at 6414.50, up +24 points, or +0.37%; and the Russell 2000 (RTYZ17:CME) settled at 1518.50, up +1.90 points or +0.12% on the day.
As always, please use protective buy and sell stops when trading futures and options.