We can see that stocks reversed their medium-term upward course following whole retracement of January euphoria rally. Then the market bounced off its almost year-long medium-term upward trend line, and it retraced more than 61.8% of the sell-off within a few days of trading. The uptrend reversed in the middle of March, and stocks retraced almost all of their February – March rebound. The index got back down to its medium-term upward trend line. There are still two possible future scenarios. The bearish one, leading us to February low or lower after breaking below medium-term upward trend line, and bullish: medium-term double top pattern or breakout higher. Last Friday's sell-off made the bearish case more likely, but then the market got back higher again. The broad stock market index continues to trade within a short-term consolidation along the above-mentioned upward trend line:

Will Earnings Releases Outweigh Negative News?

The index futures contracts are trading 0.4-0.5% higher vs. their Wednesday's closing prices right now. So, expectations before the opening of today's trading session are positive. The main European stock market indexes have gained 0.1-0.3% so far. Will stocks take another attempt at breaking above their short-term consolidation? It may happen if sentiment further improves ahead of coming quarterly earnings releases. Investors will also wait for the Initial Claims number release at 8:30 a.m.