Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower;
• Drifting down since NYSE close
• The odds are for a sideways to a down day with elevated volatility – watch for break above 2935.75 for change of fortune
• Key economic data due:
  • PPI (est. 0.2%; prev. 0.1%) at 8:30 AM
  • Core PPI ( est. 0.2%; pre. 0.3%) at 8:30 AM

Markets Around The World

• • Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Shanghai and Hong Kong were down; Singapore was closed
  • European markets are mostly lower – Switzerland is up
  • Currencies:

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bonds
  • 10-yrs yield closed at 1.716%, up from August 7 close of 1.684%;
  • 30-years is at 2.232%, up from 2.197%
  • 2-years yield is at 1.617%, up from 1.605%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.099, up from 0.079
• VIX
  • At 18.53 up from August 8 close of 16.91; Below 5-day SMA 19.90
  • Recent high was 24.81 on August 5; recent low was 11.69 on July 25

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2925.31, 2912.77 and 2894.47
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2938.72, 2945.23 and 2964.19
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 2930.50, the high of 2:30 AM and break below 2918.00, the low of 7:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Thursday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future closed at 2939.00 and the index closed at 2938.09 – a spread of about +1.00 points; futures closed at 2940.00 for the day; the fair value is -1.00
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 7:45 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -19.25; Dow by -145 and NASDAQ by -66.75

Directional Bias Before Open

• Weekly: Uptrend Under Pressure
• Daily: Uptrend Under Pressure
• 120-Min:Down-Side
• 30-Min: Up-Side
• 15-Min: Up-Side
• 6-Min: Down

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Thursday, August 8. The volume traded was lower than that on Wednesday but higher than the 10-day average. The indices gapped up at the open and then climbed higher and closed near the high for the day.

From Briefing.com:

The stock market finished decisively in the green on Thursday, as trade angst subsided and investors embraced a risk-on mindset. The S&P 500 advanced 1.9%, which extended its two-day comeback to 112 points, or 4.0%, from its session low on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.4%, the Nasdaq Composite increased 2.2%, and the Russell 2000 increased 2.1%.

[…]

Interestingly, the S&P 500 traded just below its 50-day moving average (2934) for most of the afternoon before finally breaking above the key technical level late in the session. The benchmark index held above the level on a closing basis.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher by at least 1.0%. The energy sector (+2.9%) led the advance as oil prices ($52.52/bbl, +$1.38, +2.7%) rebounded, followed by the information technology (+2.4%), communication services (+2.2%), and consumer discretionary (+2.0%) sectors.

[…]

U.S. Treasuries were under noticeable selling pressure today, which sent the 10-yr yield up 11 basis points to 1.79% at one point during the session. Buyers gradually came back, ultimately leaving the benchmark yield up three basis points to 1.72%. The 2-yr yield finished also finished three basis points higher at 1.61%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.1% to 97.60.

[…]

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending August 3 decreased by 8,000 to 209,000 (Briefing.com consensus 213,000). Continuing claims for the week ending July 27 decreased by 15,000 to 1.684 mln.
o The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims continue hovering near multi-decade lows.
• Wholesale inventories were unchanged in June (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) on top of an unrevised 0.4% increase in May. Wholesale sales decreased 0.3% in June after decreasing a revised 0.6% (from +0.1%) in May.
o The key takeaway from the June report and the May revision is that the gap between inventory growth and sales growth is widening, which should exert some pressure on prices.