The S&P remains subdued as investor appetite for government debt persists across the yield curve

Today at a glance: the S&P was steady today maintaining a 4,114 – 4,138 range before closing at 4,133.52.

Even though the S&P was subdued and remained within tight ranges, investors maintained interest for government debt at all maturities. The yield on one month US government debt declined to 3.4%.

The S&P 500 is currently trading at 4,133.52 following the release of Services PMI data from the United States.

This uncertain state for the S&P 500 is reflected by published market data as United States Services PMI released today at 13:45 UTC with a figure of 53.7, while the previous figure was 52.6. United States Existing Home Sales (Mar) came out at 4.44 million, while a consensus of analysts was expecting 4.5 million. United States Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (Apr) came out at -31.3.

Chart analysis suggests S&P 500 is approaching key support, around 20.14 points away from 4,113.38. Dipping below could indicate further losses are ahead while a failure to break below this level is likely to be seen positively by market bulls. Trend and momentum analysis indicates that the S&P 500 made an initial breakout above its 5 day Simple Moving Average at 4,135.46, a potential indicator of a newly emerging bullish phase.

Overall, while the S&P 500 has been on an uptrend, technical indicators suggest that it has no obvious direction for the immediate future.

While the S&P 500 was pretty flat today, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as Hang Seng lost 1.57% today and closed at 20,400. After ending today's session at 2,563, KOSPI Composite Index lost 18.6 points and is trading around 2,544.4. ASX 200 lost 0.43% today and closed at 7,362.2.

The index has been trending positively for about a month. The S&P 500 is up 15.45% from the significant low of 3,577 it hit 6 months ago.