Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher; moving sideways since 10:30 PM on Sunday
• The odds are for a to sideways to an up day – watch for break below 3010.75 for change of fortune
• Retail Sales may have an impact
• Key economic data due:
  • Retail Sales ( 0.4% vs. 0.1% est. ; prev. 0.4%) at 8:30 AM
  • Core Retail Sales ( 0.4% vs. 0.1% est. ; prev. 0.4%) at 8:30 AM
  • Import Prices ( -0.9% vs. -0.7% est. ; prev. 0.0% ) at 8:30 AM
  • Capacity Utilization ( 77.9% vs. 78.2% est. ; prev. 78.1%) at 9:15 AM
  • Industrial Production (0.0% vs. 0.1% est. ; prev. 0.4%) at 9:15 AM
  • Business Inventories (est. 0.4%; prev. 0.5%) at 10:00 AM
  • NAHB Housing Market Index (est. 64; prev. 64) at 10:00 AM

Markets Around The World

• • Markets in the East closed mixed – Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney closed down; Hong Kong, Mumbai, Seoul and Singapore closed higher
  • European markets are higher
  • Currencies:

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bonds
  • 10-yrs yield closed at 2.092%, down from July 12 close of 2.106%;
  • 30-years is at 2.612%, down from 2.633%
  • 2-years yield is at 1.833%, down from 1.857%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.259, up from 0.249

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3011.00, 3008.77 and 3004.51
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3017.80, 3022.65 and 3027.51
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 3023.50, the high of 3:30 AM on Monday and break below 3012.50, the low of 1:00 PM on Monday

Pre-Open

• On Monday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (June contract) closed at 3018.00 and the index closed at 3014.30 – a spread of about +3.75 points; futures closed at 3017.25 for the day; the fair value is +0.75
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 7:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +2.50; Dow by +34 and NASDAQ by +9.00

Directional Bias Before Open

• Weekly: Uptrend resumed
• Daily: Uptrend
• 120-Min:Up
• 30-Min: Up-Side
• 15-Min: Side
• 6-Min: Side

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed on Monday, July 15 in lower volume. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite closed higher. Russell 2000, Dow Jones Transportation Average NYSE Composite and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index closed down. The day’s price range was narrow.

From Briefing.com:

The stock market eked out small gains on Monday. The major averages struggled to find direction, but the S&P 500 (+0.02%), Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%), and Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%) did manage to set new record closes. The small-cap Russell 2000 underperformed with a loss of 0.5%.

[…]

Their collective weakness weighed on the S&P 500 financials sector (-0.5%), while lower oil prices ($59.51/bbl, -$0.70, -1.2%) put some pressure on the underperforming energy sector (-0.9%). The industrials sector (-0.4%) was the one other group to finish lower amid weakness from its top-weighted components, including Boeing (BA 361.61, -3.72, -1.0%) and General Electric (GE 10.27, -0.10, -1.0%).

[…]

U.S. Treasuries finished slightly higher in a quiet session. The 2-yr yield and the 10-yr yield declined one basis point each to 1.83% and 2.09%, respectively. The U.S. Dollar Index advanced 0.1% to 96.95.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey for July was Monday’s lone economic report:
• It checked in at 4.3 versus a June reading of -8.6. That was below the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 5.0, yet above the 0.0 demarcation line between expansion and contraction. Furthermore, there was a bump in the index for future business conditions to 30.8 from 25.7.