Tight Post-FOMC Minutes Wall Street Open

Today’s post-FOMC Minutes U.S. equities open has been a tight one on Wall Street. Bullish overtones are dominating the early session, with the DJIA DOW (+115), S&P 500 SPX (+10), and NASDAQ (+18) faring well through the first fifteen minutes of action. It is early, but the notion of July’s FED rate cut being nothing more than a “mid-cycle adjustment” is not deterring equities bulls.

During the pre-market hours, several employment metrics came across newswires. Here is a quick look at the data:

Event                                                      Actual    Projected      Previous

Continuing Jobless Claims (Aug 9)     1.674M      1.700M         1.728M

Initial Jobless Claims (Aug 16)              209K           216K              221K

The U.S. jobs market has continued to boom, with both Continuing and Initial Jobless Claims smashing expectations. Given the recent concerns over pending U.S. economic growth, these figures are being well-received by Wall Street.

Stocks Tick Higher On Wall Street Open

The DJIA is back above 26,000 and trending higher. Since the selloff of 14 August, the DJIA has rallied more than 1000 points, eclipsing that session’s highs.

For the September E-minis, there are two topside resistance levels to watch for the remainder of the day:

• Resistance(1): 62% Current Wave, 26408
• Resistance(2): Daily SMA, 26502

Bottom Line: If we see Wall Street continue to bid the DJIA north, a short from topside resistance may come into play later in the session. For the rest of the day, I will have sell orders queued up from 26474 in the September E-mini DOW. With an initial stop loss at 26526, this trade produces 50 ticks on a slightly sub-1:1 risk vs reward management plan.