The major European indices give up earlier gains and are closing lower on the day. Losses are modest however. The Italy's FTSE MIB had a small gain.

Technically, looking at the hourly chart of the German DAX, the high price today reached 13570.22. That was just short of swing highs going back to June 14 and June 15 near 13570.30. The move to the upside today also broke above the 50% retracement at 13546.87, but was not able to sustain momentum above that level into the close.

It would ultimately take a move above both those levels to increase the bullish bias going forward.

For now the sellers put a toe in the water against resistance levels. On the downside, getting below 13479.64 and 13433.77 are the next downside targets (old swing highs from June 21 and June 27).

Last week, the corrective moves to the downside found support buyers ahead of the rising 100 hour MA (blue line in the chart below). The inability to break back below that moving average was a bullish technical clue. The rising 100 hour MA currently comes in at 13222.34 (and rising). Ultimately, it would take a move below to hurt the short term bullish momentum more.

Nevertheless, step 1 was the failed break of the 50%. We will see tomorrow if the downside momentum continues, or does the pair gather itself and push above the 50% target and stay above...

German DAX
German DAX stalls near resistance targets, and backs off