how to trade CPI on Thursday

Evening traders.

We’ve seen some fun swings across futures markets this week ahead of CPI on Thursday.

We breakdown exactly how we’ll be trading it.

Also — if you want our EXACT TradingView chart layout that we use to build these market reports / alpha, read until the end…

Let’s jump in!

Impact Snapshot

• CPI Inflation - Thursday 08:30am ET

Market Evaluation

S&P 500 cuts earlier losses Tuesday as tech rebounds. Market has looked to regain its footing after a tough start to 2024.

Traders & investors will parse through a pair of key inflation readings to gain clarity into the path forward for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The December consumer price index is set for release Thursday, followed by the producer price index on Friday which will include key earnings to watch.

Markets Breakdown

With the market anticipating the all-important catalyst for the next major directional move, range bound activity is favored inside the key accumulation zones.

In today’s market report over on X, we’ve highlighted the importance to pay attention to the key market behavior mechanics such as poor high/lows.

The key sentiment of today’s market report was to look at finishing the auctions on either side and repair structure. 

We’ve yet again had people looking at the overnight session that thought we’re somehow doomed while not realizing the importance of range-bound activity inside key distribution areas.

People that trade the overnight session get shaken out of their positions easily which leads to a counter move. This lead into yet again a short covering influenced rally to repair the poor structure above and close the gap as we’ve highlighted. Watch the update here.

The double distribution volume profile on the left can see where this range-bound activity took place.

The top distribution will be the main focus as we need strong buyers to step in and close the gaps left on these prior days of this downside last week and print a higher high.

Failure to reclaim above the low volume node and accept back in the key areas can see another attempt to breakdown from balance to the downside.

ES

The targets we look for until NY close & Targets to pay attention Tomorrow:

• Upside Levels: 4816/4828/4841

• Downside Levels: 4758/4736/4719

That’s all we got for you today.

If you want our ALL-NEW Ultimate TradingView Suite, you can go grab it right here:

We’ll see you on Thursday!

Cheers.

-The QuantVue Team