For the first time in a decade, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed above 30,000, before coming back down later in the session. European markets were firm; the DAX was flat and the FTSE was up 0.50%. In the U.S., the S&P pointed to a +0.10% gain on the futures open, but as expected, volumes remained low throughout the day. Investors continue to be spooked by the recent rout in global junk bonds, pulling $6.7 billion from high-yield bond funds in the week ended Nov. 1.
Wednesday started with 157,000 ES contracts traded on Globex, and a range of 2594.50 to 2600.00. The first print on the 8:30 futures open was 2597.50. After the bell, the ES traded up to 2599.50 before selling off down to 2597.00. There were a few attempts to rally above the vwap, and then ES sold off and double bottomed at 2594.75. At 10:30 total volume was only 425,000 contracts traded. Around 12:25 the ES sold off down to a new low at 2593.00, and then started to bounce a little, ‘little’ being the key word. Total volume at 12:30 was 530,000. My point being that it was a slow, low volume day before a holiday, and with an early close today, there will clearly be few people trading.
After making the low, the ES traded back up to 2597.75, as the MiM started to show over $200 million to sell. At 2:45 the actual NYSE MOV came out $66 million to buy. On the 3:00 cash close the futures traded 2595.50, and went on to close out the session at 2595.00 on the 3:15 futures close.
In the end, the best way to describe the days trade was, ‘no harm, no foul.’ The S&P 500 futures (ESZ17:CME) settled at 2594.50, down -1.75 handles, or -0.06%; the Dow Jones futures (YMZ17:CBT) settled at 23,485, down -58 points, or -0.24%; the Nasdaq 100 futures (NQZ17:CME) settled at 6389.50, up +10.00 points, or +0.15%; and the Russell 2000 (RTYZ17:CME) settled at 1516.60, down -2.20 points or -0.14% on the day.