Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower
• Drifting down  since 3:30 PM on September 20; below a downtrend line from the high of 2507.00 at 9:30 AM on Wednesday
• Odds are for a down to sideways day – watch for break above 2506.75
• Key economic data due:
  • Unemployment Claims (est. 302K) at 8:30 AM
  • Philly Fed Manufacturing Index (est. 17.3) at 8:30 AM

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly lower – Tokyo was up; the intra-day trend was mostly down  sideways; Mumbai and Sydney recovered later in the day
• European markets are higher; intra-day trend is either up or sideways after an initial up move
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities are mostly down
  

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

• 10-yrs yield closed at 2.277% on September 20 up from September 19 close of 2.243%; 30-years closed at 2.821% up from 2.813%

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2496.67, 2493.16 and 2490.37
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2508.82, 2512.50 and 2516.77
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 2506.75, the high of 3:30 PM on September 20 and break below 2501.50, the low of 3:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (December contract) closed at 2506.00 and the index closed at 2508.24 – a spread of about 2.50 points; futures closed at 2505.25 for the day; the fair value is +0.75
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures price action is to the downside – at 7:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -1.25; Dow down by -7.00; and NASDAQ down by -3.75

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 mostly higher on Wednesday September 20. NASDAQ Composite closed down. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, NYSE Composite and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index made all time highs. Dow Jones Transportation Average is breaking up from a 3-4 days congestion area. Russell 2000 is near all time highs.

Just before and after FOMC announce at 2:00 PM, the volatility increased and the S&P 500 dropped from a high of 2506.75 at 12:30 PM to a low of 2494.00 at 2:30 PM. However, it recovered most of the lost ground and closed higher with a doji candle.

• S&P 500 Sectors