Energy and financial stocks on the S&P 500 opened sharply lower, as bond yields and crude oil prices stalled on the day. Both indices were down by more than 1% after the WTI and Brent crude benchmarks fell by more than 1% on the day. US bond yields on the 10-year Treasury asset were also down sharply, losing 1.18% as of the time of writing to cement the downside on both sectors.
Also hurting market sentiment is the stoppage of the AstraZeneca vaccinations in several European countries, citing serious side effects. Germany is the latest addition to the growing list of countries that are suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, adding a new twist to what has been a chaotic vaccination rollout in the Eurozone.
The S&P 500 index is trading 0.13% lower as of the time of writing.
The active candle finds itself trading off the intraday high, marking a rejection and pullback from the 3950.4 all-time high. Bulls will need to break this resistance to send the S&P 500 to new record levels. If they successfully uncap these levels, then we could see a push towards the 4005.9 resistance (161.8% Fibonacci extension from the swing move of 10 March to 20 April 2020).
On the other hand, an extension of the decline following the pullback targets 3870.0 as the immediate support. 3823.9 and 3765.1 form additional downside targets for bears if the pullback is extensive. This outlook could get extra affirmation if the active candle closes as a hanging man candle, accompanied by a bearish outside day candle.