US OPEN: Mixed start of the week after Easter

• A mixed start of the week on Wall Street
• S&P 500 is gaining immediately after a slight decrease at the start
• Bank of America earnings came in marginally above market expectations
• Investors are also waiting for more information on Twitter and Elon Musk's further moves after releasing a puzzling tweet over the weekend

The Asian session was rather negative today, leading to sharp declines in Wall Street futures in the morning. The weak sentiment was linked to the rise in energy commodity prices and the increased intensity of Russia's bombing raids in Ukraine. Russia additionally reminds that if "hostile" countries do not start paying for gas supplies in roubles soon, gas flows may be stopped. US gas prices rose above $7.5 MMBTU and were the highest in 13 years. Additionally, yields in the US continued to rise due to fears of stronger and faster monetary tightening. A 50bp hike in May is almost certain, given inflation at 8.5%. Today investors' attention will also be focused on James Bullard's speech just after the end of the session on Wall Street.

US500 lost heavily on Thursday, just before the Easter break. However, the market is defending against going below the 38.2 retracement. A return above 4400 points could stop the negative sentiment. At the same time, we see that the strong demand zone was previously broken through but investors managed to get back the index above the mentioned zone.Source: xStation5

Bank of America (BAC.US) released its financial results for the first quarter of this year before start pf the Wall Street session. EPS came in at $0.80 against expectations of $0.75. The company's revenue was at $23.23 billion against expectations of $23.18 billion. Trading profit came in at $4.65 billion against expectations of $4.25 billion. Following the release, the stock gained more than 1% before the start of the session. Earlier, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo released their first-quarter financial results. All reports were better than expected, but at the same time, the banks scored a decrease in earnings compared to last year's results.

Bank of America shares fell to $37.5, below the 38.2 retracement of the huge rebound after the initial pandemic-related sell-off. A close above $38.5 is key for bulls. However, if declines return, a key support zone is tied to the $35.5 level. Source: xStation5

Reuters reports that Tesla (TSLA.US) may have to delay a reopening of its Shanghai factory in China, linked to logistical problems with suppliers. On the other hand, many companies in Shanghai are preparing to resume work after a 3-week lockdown due to the coronavirus.

Twitter (TWTR.US) gained more than 2% in pre-market trading, which may have something to do with the tweet message given by Elon Musk. The "Love me tender" message may signify his intention to prepare another bid to acquire Twitter. On Friday, the board indicated that it intends to launch a "poison pill" defense once Elon Musk's stake exceeds 15%. In that case, Twitter intends to dump a large number of shares into the market to increase the difficulty of Musk's takeover of Twitter.