Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are little changed
• Drifting mostly sideways up since 8:00 PM on September 17;
• An ascending triangle emerging on 30-minute chart – high of 2506.00 and low of 2497.75; break above will have a target near 2514.25
• Markets are in wait-&-see mode due to FOMC meeting
• Odds are for sideways day – watch for break above 2506.00 and break below 2502.25 for a change of fortunes
• Key economic data due:
  • Existing Home Sales (est. 5.46M) at 10:00 AM
  • FOMC Statement and Economic Projections at 2:00 PM
  • FOMC Press Conference at 2:30 PM

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mixed – Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were up; Sydney, Mumbai and Seoul were down; the intra-day trend mirrored the end of day direction
• European markets are mostly lower – France and Switzerland are up; intra-day trend is down
• Currencies:
  

  Up	Down
  EUR/USD GBP/USD AUD/USD NZD/USD	Dollar index USD/JPY USD/CHF USD/CAD

• Commodities are mostly down
  

  Up	Down
  Crude Oil NatGas Gold Silver Copper Platinum	Palladium Sugar Coffee

• 10-yrs yield closed at 2.243% on September 19 up from September 18 close of 2.229%; 30-years closed at 2.813% up from 2.803%

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2499.92, 2493.16 and 2490.37
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2508.60, 2510.54 and 2513.25
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 2506.00, the high of 3:30 PM on September 19 and break below 2502.25, the low of 8:30 PM on September 19

Pre-Open

• On Tuesday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (December contract) closed at 2505.00 and the index closed at 2506.65 – a spread of about 1.25 points; futures closed at 2504.75 for the day; the fair value is +0.25
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures price action is little changed to down – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were unchanged; Dow down by -5.00; and NASDAQ down by -1.50

Directional Bias Before Open

• Weekly: Up
• Daily: Up
• 120-Min: Side-to-Up
• 30-Min: Side-to-Up

The trend and patterns on various time frames for S&P 500 are:

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed Tuesday September 19. Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Transportation Average closed lower. The day’s range was small. Dow Jones Industrial Average made all time highs. S&P 500 and NASDAQ closed at all time highs. Most of the day’s action was in the first hour.

• S&P 500 Sectors