EB Daily Market Report - Brief Update - Thursday, March 5, 2026

The S&P 500 has again moved below the short-term price support level of 6797, touching an intraday low of 6770.78 earlier in the session. We have seen a bounce off of that low, however, with the S&P 500 attempting a late-afternoon rally. Still, the Dow Jones and small cap S&P 600 are down more than 2.15% and 2.31%, respectively. The NASDAQ, down roughly 1%, is the best-performer amongst our major indices.

10 of our 11 sectors are lower, led by industrials (XLI, -2.72%) and health care (XLV, -2.56%). The only group in positive territory is energy (XLE, +0.46%) as crude oil prices ($WTIC, +8.68%) surged again today, currently trading over $81 per barrel. The move up in energy shares pales in comparison to crude's strength. Other commodities are, a bit surprisingly, not moving higher, as gold ($GOLD, -1.19%) retreats back closer to $5000 per ounce.

Cryptocurrencies had a great day yesterday, but bitcoin ($BTCUSD, -3.32%) failed at key 74,000-75,000 price resistance and sellers regained control. The range on bitcoin is now clearly 60,000 to 75,000. I expect back and forth action until one of these levels is broken.

The 3 aggressive sectors - consumer discretionary (XLY, -0.50%), communication services (XLC, -0.51%), and technology (XLK, -0.77%) - holding up relatively well. Software ($DJUSSW, +1.54%) remains a strong group in the short-term, attempting to close above its opening price for the 8th consecutive session. The DJUSSW hit a high of 6674.80 today, which isn't too far off from its 1-month high established on February 10th at 6717.16. Clearing 6717.16 could send this badly-beaten-up group back towards 7000 and its 50-day SMA (currently at 7083).

Costco Wholesale (COST) reports its latest quarterly results after the bell today.

Happy trading!
Tom