Arabic version: الخطوة التالية لمؤشر إس آند بي 500 قد تتوقف على مؤشر الارتباط

According to Cnbc, the S&P 500 is caught near a key technical level as options positioning and a volatility-based breadth measure offer competing signals for the market’s next move. After two whipsaw trading days, bulls and bears were again confronting the 7,500 area.

Options traders and market makers in Chicago bought dips below 7,500 on Friday but also sold rallies above that level. Positioning data tracked by SpotGamma and Barchart indicated that a deeper decline could lead to sharper moves similar to Wednesday’s drop, which pushed the S&P 500 to its lowest level since mid-June.

Combined open interest in puts and calls was highest at 750 for the SPY exchange-traded fund, Barchart data showed. At 745, Barchart and SpotGamma data suggested that dealer hedging could turn “negative gamma,” reducing the dip-buying and rally-selling activity that has helped keep the index near 7,500. SpotGamma founder Brent Kochuba wrote that a break below 7,450 could bring a bigger downside move.

Meanwhile, Cboe’s one-month implied correlation index, which measures expected correlation among the S&P 500’s top 50 stocks over the next month, rose from 3.3 on July 10 to more than 12 following Wednesday’s sell-off and Thursday’s broad rally. The increase pointed to a more balanced market, although correlations reached 20 in June and 45 in April before previous selloffs bottomed. When the S&P 500 fell on Wednesday following the Fed meeting, only one stock in the index hit a 52-week low.