Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower; declining since 6:00 AM on November 19
• The odds are for a down to sideways day; watch for break above 3124.25 for change of fortune
• Key economic data due:
  • FOMC Meeting Minutes at 2:00 PM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3112.06, 3104.60 and 3098.20
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3119.59, 3125.16 and 3127.64
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 3116.00, the high of 2:00 AM and break below 3104.50, the low of 6:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Tuesday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future closed at 3119.50 and the index closed at 3120.18 – a spread of about -0.75 points; futures closed at 3118.50 for the day; the fair value is +1.00
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -7.00; Dow by -72 and NASDAQ by -25.50

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly lower – Mumbai closed up;
• European markets are mostly lower – Italy and Switzerland are up
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bonds
  • 10-yrs yield closed at 1.786%, down from November 18 close of 1.808%;
  • 30-years is at 2.255%, down from 2.293%
  • 2-years yield is at 1.590%, down from 1.606%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.196 down from 0.202
• VIX
  • Is at 13.32 up from November 19 close of 12.86; above 5-day SMA
  • Recent high was 13.95 on October 31; recent low was 11.92 on November 15

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed  on Tuesday, November 19 in mostly higher volume. NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000 and  Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index closed up and NASDAQ Composite traded in lower volume. The day’s range was small and most indices made indecisive patterns. Dow Jones Industrial Average made bearish engulfing pattern.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 declined 0.1% on Tuesday in a mixed session. The retail industry was under pressure following disappointing quarterly results and guidance from Home Depot (HD 225.86, -12.99, -5.4%) and Kohl’s (KSS 47.02, -11.38, -19.5%).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.4%) also finished lower, while the Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%) and Russell 2000 (+0.4%) finished higher. The Nasdaq closed at another record high.

[…]

The U.S. Treasury market was relatively quiet, but demand for longer-dated bonds contributed to some curve-flattening activity. The 2-yr yield was unchanged at 1.59%, and the 10-yr yield declined two basis points to 1.79%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.1% to 97.85.

[…]

• Total housing starts increased 3.8% m/m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.314 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.300 million) while total building permits increased 5.0% m/m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.461 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.365 million).
o There was a sizable jump in starts (+8.6%) and permits (+8.2%) for multi-unit dwellings, yet the key takeaway from the report is that starts (+2.0%) and permits (+3.2%) increased for single-family units in an inventory-constrained environment for single-family homes.