Wednesday -- Fed Minutes & A Special Situation...Space

ES Futures:
Modestly higher after yesterday's pullback.

News:
Fed minutes day, 2:00 pm NY time.

FX:
USD weakness, EUR gain. JPY stronger.

Treasuries:
Yields have flipped from negative to positive across the entire curve, perhaps due to rumblings from the 8:00 am speech by Fed's Powell.

Energy:
WTI smacked after yesterday's API inventory report showed a 12.2 million barrel build, yet holding above $50 even in the face of record Saudi production levels.

Metals:
Gold holding 1200.

S&P Outlook:
2072.17 was not messed with during yesterday's swoon. This may suggest the buying pressure -- what little there is -- remains to the upside. But bulls left a lot to be desired yesterday. Perhaps today's Fed Minutes will provide the dovish news they're looking for.

The next volume shelf is the 2111 area and next gap is 2117.39.

2072.17 remains the early warning level for bears unless a new rally high occurs.

Special Situation (social mood alert):
Space is hot. Maybe a little too hot.

Reuters just announced that Blue Origin, a space exploration company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has finished work on a rocket engine for a suborbital spaceship and expects to begin flight tests this year.

Investors better hope that the current space craze doesn't follow the recent Red Bull Stratos strategy:

A mission to the edge of space then supersonic freefall.

Add Blue Origin to:

-- Virgin Galactic, a U.S. commercial spaceflight company that is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists.

-- SpaceX, Elon Musk's version of Virgin Galactic.

-- Hyperloop, Elon Musk's version of city-to-city hyper-speed travel (think The Jetson's)

-- And Musk's latest project to build a second Internet in space and one day use it to connect people on Mars to the Web.

Not passing judgment, just calling attention to the social mood implications.

With lofty slogans such as "Tomorrow Will Be Better Than Today" and "Exploring Space Makes Life Better On Earth," the implication is that social mood -- among billionaires, at least -- is sky high.

When Warren Buffett joins the space craze, worry.