U.S. indices have begun the week moderately in the red. Through the first hour of trade following the Wall Street opening bell, the DJIA is down 50 and S&P 500 is off by one. Lagging Existing Home Sales are being credited with the early weakness.

For June, Existing Home Sales came in at 5.38 million, below projections and the previous release. This is a bit peculiar given the aggregate strength of the American economy. Real estate performance is typically robust during the summer months. One has to wonder if we are beginning to see the impacts of FED tightening on the availability of capital.

S&P 500 Technicals

July has been a good month for U.S. equities, featuring bull runs in both the DJIA and the S&P 500. A simple look at the September E-mini S&P 500 futures daily chart illustrates this point.

Price has stalled out just beneath the 2820.00 level. The intermediate-term technicals remain bullish, although the last few sessions have shown some weakness. Here are the key areas to watch for the remainder of the session:

• Resistance(1): Swing High, 2818.25
• Support(1): Bollinger MP, 2774.00
• Support(2): 38% Current Wave Retracement, 2770.50 (not pictured)

Bottom Line: Trade has been slow for the session and I expect that trend to continue. However, if we see a retracement to support later in the week, a buying opportunity may set up.

As long as the Swing High (2818.25) remains the recent top on the daily chart, I will have buys queued up from 2775.25. With an initial stop at 2769.75, this trade yields 18 ticks using a standard 1:1 risk vs reward scenario.