Thursday brought a dismal session to U.S. stocks with bearish sentiment dominating trade. This morning’s opening bell has brought a reprieve from the selling, as the DJIA DOW, S&P 500 SPX, and NASDAQ are trying to close the week on a positive note.

It is getting to be old hat, but trade war hysteria continues to be the 5000-pound elephant stomping on stock prices. Going into the Memorial Day weekend, it will be interesting to see if traders go home long or net-flat U.S. stocks.

Durable Goods Fall, U.S Stocks Rally

During the U.S. pre-market hours, the Durable Goods statistics from April hit the newswires. Here is a quick look at the data:

Event                                                                                     Actual      Projected     Previous

Durable Goods Orders (April)                                            -2.1%          -2.0%               1.7%

Durable Goods Orders ex Transportation (April)            0.0%            0.2%             -0.5%

Nondefense Capital Goods Orders ex Aircraft (April)    -0.9%          -0.3%               0.3%

In short, Durable Goods Orders (April) are down across the board. This isn’t a huge deal, but does suggest that U.S. consumption is slowing a bit. Thus far, equities have largely ignored the data.

The NASDAQ Rallies From A Brutal Thursday

Yesterday was a rough session for tech stock bulls. The June E-mini NASDAQ plunged to fresh monthly lows at 7268.00, before posting a modest late-day rebound.

Overview: At this point, the daily and weekly downtrends in the NASDAQ remain valid. Since last Thursday’s rejection of the macro 62% Retracement (7650.00), the bears have controlled this market. In the event price can’t establish a foothold above the 38% Current Wave Retracement (7410.50), they will very likely continue to do so.