EQUITIES: E-Mini S&P Trading Just Below the Late-January Highs

The medium-term trend condition in EuroStoxx 50 futures remains bullish and the latest pullback through the 50-day EMA appears corrective. A clear break below this average would undermine the bull theme and signal scope for a deeper retracement. The bull trigger is at 6086.00, the Jan 3 high. A move through this hurdle would resume the primary uptrend. A short-term bearish theme in S&P E-Minis resulted in a break last week of 6814.50, the Jan 21 low and a bear trigger. This proved short-lived, however, with prices rising swiftly back above to begin this week. Note this puts the contract back above the 20- and 50-day EMAs. Any continuation lower would open 6691.56, a Fibonacci retracement point. The contract has recovered today. Initial firm resistance now is 7025.43, the 1.0% 10-dma envelope. A break of this hurdle would be bullish.

• Japan's NIKKEI closed higher by 1286.6 pts or +2.28% at 57650.54 and the TOPIX ended 71.71 pts higher or +1.9% at 3855.28.
• Elsewhere, in China the SHANGHAI closed higher by 5.285 pts or +0.13% at 4128.373 and the HANG SENG ended 155.99 pts higher or +0.58% at 27183.15.
• Across Europe, Germany's DAX trades higher by 36.91 pts or +0.15% at 25050.61, FTSE 100 lower by 30.41 pts or -0.29% at 10355.56, CAC 40 up 46.43 pts or +0.56% at 8368.9 and Euro Stoxx 50 up 12.06 pts or +0.2% at 6070.71.
• Dow Jones mini up 34 pts or +0.07% at 50254, S&P 500 mini up 2.5 pts or +0.04% at 6986.25, NASDAQ mini down 5.5 pts or -0.02% at 25352.25.