U.S. markets tick up amid coronavirus crisis

Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre breaks down today's market action as investors fear a global coronavirus shutdown could last months.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: The S&P 500 right now up 2.7%. That's around the highs of the session, if I'm not mistaken. Our Jared Blikre has been tracking all the action today, and it's actually been calm, although it's all relative. On a relative basis, it is a calmer day today in terms of the trading range, Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, that's correct. 650 points for the Dow, thereabout, that's the range for the day. And that's the lowest range we've had in a month, and the day's not over yet. Could push higher, as we're touching session highs right now, but that's where we are. We can also see the NASDAQ is up the most today. It's up about 3%. Russell 2000 about half of that, and then the S&P 500 2.65%. And let's take a look here. So we can see we're at session highs right now, just pushing higher. In the multi-day range, we're still at the upper end of this, and let's take a look at this on a candlestick basis. This will give us a better idea here.

And we can see that 2,600, just above, is really bigger resistance-- excuse me, 2,700 right there and then 2,950. Those are two big levels that a lot of traders are-- are looking at here, so just above where we are and where we were late last week. We can also take a look at the 10-year T-note yield, and that is down today by a significant amount. That's 12 basis points at 0.63%. And as you would expect, financials underperforming because of that. And we can also take a look at the US dollar index. Now, that is up today, but that's after this huge slide we had last week, which was the biggest since 1987.

And we also got to take a look at crude oil because that is depressed, down 5% once again. Dipped into the teens a couple of times earlier in the session. President Trump did speak with Vladimir Putin on the phone, and they agreed to continue talks, but there's no relief in sight. And we can see RBOB gasoline futures at $0.55 now. That's just an incredible price as well. And then gold futures, those are down just a little bit, but still holding 1,620 support right now. And we do have this top in place, but I'd say as long as 1,600 holds, we have the ability to push higher.

And now let's take a look at the NASDAQ 100, and we can see Microsoft in the upper left really getting a boost here, up over 6%. Tech outperforming today, one of the leading sectors. Apple up 2 and 1/2%, Amazon 3%. And if we take a look at a chart, and let's go back to a year-to-date, the-- Amazon is now reclaiming its 50-day moving average. So I would say a close over 1,900, 1,960 would be very favorable as a development. Julie. Jared Blikre, thank you very much.