Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher ;
• The odds are for an up day; watch for a break below 3645.50 for change of fortunes
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Empire State Manufacturing PMI (4.9 vs. 6.3 est.; prev. 6.3) at 8:30 AM
  • Import Prices (0.1% vs. 0.3% est.; prev. -0.1%) at 8:30 AM
  • Capacity Utilization Rate ( 73.1% est.; prev. 72.8%) at 9:15 AM
  • Industrial Production ( 0.3% est.; prev. 1.1%) at 9:15 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3662.91, 3645.84, and 3633.40
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3675.27, 3697.61, and 3712.39
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3668.50, the high of 7:00 AM and break below 3645.50, the low of 3:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Monday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2021) closed at 3637.50 and the index closed at 3647.49 – a spread of about -10.00 points; futures closed at 3640.00 for the day; the fair value is -2.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +24.75; Dow by +168, and NASDAQ by +80.75

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly down – Mumbai was up
• European markets are mixed – Germany, France, and Itlay are up; the UK, Spain, Switzerland, and STOXX 600 are down
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are higher
  • Industrial metals are mostly higher
  • Most soft commodities mostly higher
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 0.903%, up 5.9 BP from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 1.642%, up 6.9 BP;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.121%, down 2.4 BP;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.782, up from 0.699
• VIX
  • At 23.21 @ 6:30 AM; down from the last close; at/above 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  27.27 on November 12; low =  19.51 on November 27
  • Sentiment: Risk-On-Neutral

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly lower on Monday, December 14 in mixed volume.  NASDAQ Composite and Russell 2000 closed higher. Dow Jones Industrial Average and Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in lower volume. Major indices gapped up at the open but started to decline in the late morning and picked up steam near the close of trading. Major indices are mostly lower from a week ago. The daily market trend is sideways-to-down.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 started Monday’s session with a 0.9% gain as the U.S. began distributing the first COVID-19 vaccines to the public, but an orderly retreat ensued that left the benchmark index down 0.4% for the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.6%) joined the benchmark index in the red after hitting an all-time high in early action. The Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%) and Russell 2000 (+0.1%), however, ended the session in positive territory. […] Within minutes after the open, the S&P 500 energy sector (-3.5%) and last week’s hot IPO companies succumbed to profit-taking interest, sapping some enthusiasm from this market. The financials (-1.2%), materials (-1.3%), and industrials (-1.3%) sectors also lagged, while the consumer discretionary (+0.5%) and information technology (+0.4%) sectors closed higher. […] U.S. Treasuries finished little changed after starting the session in the red, as investors returned to bonds amid the lackluster intraday price action in the major indices. The 2-yr yield was flat at 0.11%, and the 10-yr yield was flat at 0.89%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.3% to 90.69. WTI crude increased 0.9%, or $0.42, to $47.00/bbl. […] Nasdaq Composite +38.6% YTD Russell 2000 +14.7% YTD S&P 500 +12.9% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +4.6% YTD