The to-and-fro of the US-Chinese trade war has left markets in a bit of a grey zone and facing uncertainty after holding moving average support. The S&P undercut its 50-day MA on higher volume distribution, but it also came back with a relative performance improvement. Technicals are net bearish.

Today's action was relatively tight and held inside the range of yesterday's losses. While losses weren't great, the Russell 2000 did suffer the most of lead indices. Having said that, converged 20-day, 50-day and 200-day MAs remain support, although the MACD switched to a 'sell' trigger. Even if this support is lost the likelihood of a trading range emerging off the 1,494 swing low is still quite high.

The morning gap down on Chinese trade war fears was painted over by some decent buying action over the course of the day. Best of the action was reserved for the Russell 2000, which is now starting to outperform the S&P and Nasdaq; this is good news for bulls for all indices. Technicals are in good shape but I would like to see the MACD expand upwards.

Shorts may think they have their reversal but the last such break in March quickly reversed higher. Volume was light even though technicals weakened with MACD 'sell' triggers for key indices. The S&P has started to see its MACD trigger line accelerate lower after weeks of flat-line behaviour. The S&P has also switched to a point of underperformance against the Russell 2000; this is bullish for the broader market even if it's bad news for the S&P in the near term.