European Trade: European shares found positive momentum near the opening bell, which helped the regional equity indexes recover some of the declines seen throughout Tuesday trade. Interestingly, the same sectors that dragged the market lower during the prior day of trading, carmakers, basic materials and banks, are the ones to post the biggest gains in Thursday trade.

The surge seen in European trade comes ahead of the ADP private sector jobs report from the U.S., expected at 08:15 EDT and before the Fed's interest rate decision, scheduled at 14:15 EST. Most markets advanced ahead of the Fed, with gold marching towards the $1100.00 area and with the dollar index losing valuable points.

The S&P futures market gained 7.00 points overnight, but participation was relatively light. Still, the S&P futures were able to break above a resistance trend-line that has been holding the market since Oct 23 09. This is usually interpreted as a positive thing, and something that might allow the market to re-test the highs set at the 1100.00 area.

In Thursday's European trade, the German Dax advanced 1.45%, while Norway's stock market gained 2.20%. Emerging European shares outperform the Western mature markets, with Hungary up 2.40%, Romania advancing 1.60% and Ukraine trading up 2.00%.

S&P Technical View: 

4 Hour chart trend: Short. Main price points: 1025, and 1069.75. Looking for: Wave IV
 
S&P futures traded near to the 1025 lows in the previous session, which could be the triangle wave B) noise, of a wave IV flat correction.  If this is the case then another move up, near to the 1050-1060 area should follow before market trades heavily lower again.
 
If the wave count is correct, traders should then look for another push lower, near to the 1011 support zone, if the market trades below the 1069.75 zone. Any break of this resistance will require changes to the wave count

Sector Moves: Only a handful of stocks declined in European trade as investors were lured by the earnings results posted by Societe General, Marks & Spencer and Nissan. Moreover, the quarterly earnings results helped the banking and the carmakers sector advance 2% in early European trade. In the German Dax, Commerzbank advanced 3.60%, being the best gainer in the index, while Daimler gained 3.20%.

Nissan's narrow full-year loss forecast helped carmakers surge, especially Renault, which advanced almost 5%. At the same time, miners are currently trading up 2.20% as gold extended the uptrend seen over the last few days of trading.