Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher; bounced up following the drop during the last half-hour of trading on Wednesday; up 18 point from that low; moving sideways since 2:30 AM
• The odds are for an up day – watch for break below 3257.75 for change of fortune
• Key economic data due:
  • Unemployment Claims (214K vs.221K est.; prev. 223K ) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3251.95, 3238.35 and 3232.58
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3267.07, 3282.66 and 3298.26
• Key levels for eMini futures: break above 3274.00, the high of 3:30 AM and break below 3257.75, the low of 10:00 PM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (March 2020) closed at 3253.75 and the index closed at 3253.05 – a spread of about +0.75 points; futures closed at 3260.25 for the day; the fair value is -6.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:15 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +10.00; Dow by +90 and NASDAQ by +48.50

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed higher
• European markets are mostly up – Spain is down
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bonds
  • 10-yrs yield closed at 1.874%, up from January 7 close of 1.827%;
  • 30-years is at 2.358%, up from 2.305%
  • 2-years yield is at 1.581%, up from 1.544%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.293 up from 0.283
• VIX
  • Is at 13.13 down from January 8 close of 13.45; below 5-day SMA
  • Recent high was 17.99 on December 3; recent low was 11.72 on December 26

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Wednesday, January 8 in higher volume. Major indices made breakout candle patterns. Most major indices except Dow Jones Transportation Average and Russell 2000 made all time highs. On two S&P sectors – Energy and Utility – closed down.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 (+0.5%) set a new intraday high on Wednesday, as investors were relieved to hear that the situation in Iran may not escalate militarily beyond the actions taken by Iran last night. The Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%) closed at a record high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 gained 0.3%. Stocks did fade into the close, though.

[…]

The information technology (+1.0%) and communication services (+0.7%) sectors outperformed, while the energy sector (-1.7%) fell behind amid a retreat in oil prices ($59.62, -3.06, -4.9%). WTI crude futures dropped below $60/bbl following bearish inventory data and receding concerns about production disruptions.

[…]

U.S. Treasuries declined alongside the advance in equities, driving yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield rose four basis points to 1.58%, and the 10-yr yield rose five basis points to 1.87%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.3% to 97.30. Gold futures fell 0.9% to $1560.50/ozt.

[…]

• The ADP Employment Change Report showed an estimated 202,000 positions were added to private sector payrolls in December (Briefing.com consensus 155,000) on top of an upwardly revised 124,000 (from 67,000) in November.
• Consumer credit increased by $12.5 bln in November (Briefing.com consensus $17.5 bln) after increasing by $18.9 bln in October.
o The key takeaway from the report is that the November increase was driven entirely by nonrevolving credit.