Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower; broke below a symmetrical triangle at 7:30 AM on 30-minute chart
• The odds are for a down day with elevated volatility – watch for break above 2811.00 for change of fortune
• Key economic data due:
  • Unemployment Claims ( 2981K vs. 2500K est.; prev. 3176K) at 8:30 AM
  • Import Prices ( -2.6% vs. -3.1% est.; prev. -2.4%) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2775.95, 2762.46, 2732.79 and 2727.10
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2797.85, 2823.91 and 2839.40
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 2811.00, the high of 5:30 AM and break below 2777.00, the low of 8:30 AM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2020) closed at 2813.25 and the index closed at 2820.00 – a spread of about -6.25 points; futures closed at 2813.00 for the day; the fair value is +0.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -27.00; Dow by -284 and NASDAQ up -76.75

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed lower
• European markets are lower
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bond
  • 10-yrs yield is at 0.615%, down from May 13 close of 0.649%;
  • 30-years is at 1.293%, down from 1.341%
  • 2-years yield is at 0.161% unchanged
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.454 down from 0.488
• VIX
  • Is at 37.21; up +1.93 from May 13 close; above 5-day SMA;
  • Down from all time high of 85.47 on March 18; recent high 47.77 on April 21, recent low 30.54 on April 28
  • Sentiment: Risk-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed lower on Wednesday, May 13 in higher volume. Market gapped down at the open and the mostly traded lower. Most indices have made new lows for May and broken below recent support levels. NASDAQ Composite is an exception and leading the market.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 lost 1.8% on Wednesday in a broad-based decline, as investors respected some cautious commentary from Fed Chair Powell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.2%, the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.6%, and the Russell 2000 declined 3.3%.

[…]

The S&P 500 did trade in positive territory for a moment after the open, but sellers quickly regained control with losses broadening out to all 11 S&P 500 sectors. The energy (-4.4%) and financials (-3.0%) sectors took the biggest hits, while the consumer staples (-0.9%) and utilities (-0.9%) sectors declined less than 1.0%.

[…]

U.S. Treasuries ended the session slightly higher. The 2-yr yield declined one basis point to 0.15%, and the 10-yr yield declined three basis points to 0.65%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.3% to 100.25. WTI crude declined 1.6%, or $0.42, to $25.34/bbl.

[…]

• The Producer Price Index for final demand declined 1.3% m/m in April (Briefing.com consensus -0.5%), marking its biggest decrease since records began in December 2009. Most of that decline was attributed to a 3.3% drop in prices for final demand goods.
o The Producer Price Index for April may not be convincing enough to the Fed to go down the negative interest rate road, yet the key takeaway is that it will certainly keep it on the path at the lower bound.
• The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index increased 0.3% following a 0.1% increase in the prior week.