Friday brings a continuation of heavy selling on the US indices, led by tech stocks. USFANG is down 4.5%, US100 3.5% and US500 2.4%. The Financial Times reported that Softbank (the Japanese financial conglomerate) could be the one to blame. The company reportedly amassed call options on US tech stocks (causing a phenom when the VOLX was rising along the US100) and now those positions might be due for a sudden unwind.
In such circumstances market swings can be very large and technical levels play a smaller role. Having said that it’s worth paying attention to US500 where prices slipped below the February highs (just below 3400). A close below this level heading into the long weekend in the US could be a bad omen.