Main U.S. indexes roughly flat; banks gain, chips red U.S. Dec cons confidence > est; Nov existing home sales < est Cons disc leads S&P 500 sector gainers; staples weakest group Euro STOXX 600 index rises ~0.3% Dollar, bitcoin slip; gold, crude up Dec 22 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com U.S. STOCKS CREEP AROUND IN EARLY TRADE (1003 EST/1503 GMT) Wall Street"s main indexes are roughly flat early on Wednesday, as worries lingered over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and what it may mean for the global economic recovery. As stands, the S&P 500 is on track for a second straight close above its 50-day moving average (DMA), which sits below the market, at around 4,618. The DJI is just shy of its closely watched intermediate-term moving average, which is resistance around 35,600. The Nasdaq"s 50-DMA is up around 15,500. Here is where markets stand in early trade: earlytrade12222021 earlytrade12222021 (Terence Gabriel) ***** S&P 500: BULLS GET A BOOST (0900 EST/1400 GMT) In the wake of Tuesday"s strong bounce, the S&P 500 index (.SPX) is only down around 1.3% from its 4,712.02 November 10 record close. read more Meanwhile, the 5-day moving average of the CBOE equity put/call (P/C) ratio, which can be viewed as a contrarian measure of sentiment, is suddenly cooperating with bulls read more : PC12222021 PC12222021 The measure, which had risen to readings of 58% and 58.2% on December 6 and December 16, is now deflating to 51.8%. Of note, since bottoming at 40.2% in mid-June 2020, the P/C measure has ranged between high-30% and low-60% readings. If this pattern is continuing then the measure appears to have signaled that market sentiment became sufficiently bearish over the last several weeks or so of trading, that the SPX can mount a more sustained recovery. Therefore, traders will be watching to see if the P/C measure can oscillate back below 40% as the SPX rallies. A P/C measure breakout much above the low-60% area, however, may instead signal the onset of panic. The measure peaked at 105% on March 17, 2020, in what was a more-than-30% S&P 500 collapse. read more (Terence Gabriel) ***** FOR WEDNESDAY"S LIVE MARKETS" POSTS PRIOR TO 0900 EST/1400 GMT - CLICK HERE: read more Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own