Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher;
• The odds are for an up day with a good chance to sideways to up move from pre-open levels around 3615.00 – watch for the break above 3623.25 and the break below 3585.75 for clarity
• Key economic data report:
  • Building Permits ( 1.55M vs. 1.57M est.; prev. 1.55M) at 8:30 AM
  • Housing Starts ( 1.53M vs. 1.45M est.; prev. 1.42M ) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3603.40, 3588.68, and 3569.52
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3628.51, 3645.99, and 3665.24
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3623.25, the high of 7:30 AM and break below 3585.75, the low of 1:30 AM

Pre-Open

• On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (December 2020) closed at 3607.50 and the index closed at 3609.53 – a spread of about -2.00 points; futures closed at 3606.75 for the day; the fair value is +1.25
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:15 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +8.75; Dow by +120, and NASDAQ by +19.50

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Tokyo closed down
• European markets are mostly higher – Switzerland is lower
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  • Energy is higher
  • Precious metals are down
  • Industrial metals are mostly up – copper is down
  • Most soft commodities are up
• Treasuries
  • 10-years yield closed at 0.872, down the last close of 0.906%;
  • 30-years is at 1.626% down from 1.660%
  • 2-years yield is at 0.185% up from 0.189%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.687 down from 0.717
• VIX
  • At 22.13 @ 6:30 AM; down -0.58 from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  41.16 on October 16; low =  22.41 on November 9
  • Sentiment: Risk-On-to-Neutral

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed on Tuesday, November 17 in lower volume. Dow Jones Transportation Average and Russell 2000 closed higher. They also made all-time intraday and closing highs. For the past five days, the major indices have been moving mostly sideways to higher. All but three – Energy, Real Estate, and Telecom – S&P sectors closed lower.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 declined 0.5% on Tuesday in a cool-down session following its recent record-setting run. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.2%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.6%) also closed modestly lower, while the Russell 2000 (+0.4%) closed at a fresh record high. […] For the most part, losses were kept in check. The S&P 500 utilities sector strayed from the pack with a 2.0% decline, but no other sector fell more than 0.8%. The energy (+0.5%) and real estate (+0.1%) sectors eked out gains. […] U.S. Treasuries ended the session with small gains, pushing yields lower. The 2-yr yield decreased two basis points to 0.16%, and the 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 0.87%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.2% to 92.44. WTI crude futures increased 0.2% to $41.43/bbl. […] October Retail Sales were softer than expected with total retail sales up 0.3% m/m (Briefing.com consensus +0.5%) and sales, excluding autos, up 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus +0.6%). September retail sales growth was revised down to 1.6% from 1.9%. Excluding autos, it was revised to 1.2% from 1.5%. […] Industrial production increased 1.1% m/m in October (Briefing.com consensus +0.9%) on top of an upwardly revised 0.4% decline (from -0.6%) in September. The capacity utilization rate hit 72.8% (Briefing.com consensus 72.3%) following an upwardly revised 72.0% (from 71.5%) in September. […] The NAHB Housing Market Index increased to a new all-time high of 90 in November (Briefing.com consensus 85) following the previous all-time high of 85 in October. Business inventories increased 0.7% in September (Briefing.com consensus +0.5%) following an unrevised 0.3% increase in August. Import prices decreased 0.1% in October; and prices excluding oil increased 0.1%. Export prices increased 0.2% in October; and prices excluding agriculture were unchanged. […] Nasdaq Composite +32.6% YTD S&P 500 +11.7% YTD Russell 2000 +7.4% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +4.4% YTD