The odds are for a sideways to down day – watch for a break above 3897.00 and break below 3866.25 for clarity
No key economic data report due during the day:
Directional Bias Before Open:
Weekly: Uptrend
Daily: Uptrend Under Pressure
120-Min: Side-Down
30-Min: Down-Side
15-Min: Up-Side
6-Min: Down-Side
Key Levels:
Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3888.59, 3862.91, and 3842.51
Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3901.33, 3910.28, and 3914.50
Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3897.00, the high of 7:45 AM and break below 3866.25, the low of 4:00 AM
Pre-Open
On Monday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2021) closed at 3897.75 and the index closed at 3901.82 – a spread of about -4.00 points; futures closed at 3898.75 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 -8.25; Dow by -58, and NASDAQ by -33.50
Markets Around The World
Markets in the East closed mixed – Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney closed lower; Mumbai, Seoul, and Singapore closed higher
European markets are mostly higher – Italy is down
Currencies (from two weeks ago):
Up
Down
Dollar index
USD/JPY
USD/CHF
USD/CAD
INR/USD
EUR/USD
GBP/USD
AUD/USD
NZD/USD
Commodities (from two weeks ago):
Energy futures are lower
Precious metals are lower
Industrial metals are lower
Most soft commodities are mostly lower
Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
10-years yield closed at 1.450%, up 15.1 BP from two weeks ago;
30-years is at 2.239%, up 14.9 BP;
2-years yield is at 0.121%, down 0.4 BP;
The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.329, up from 1.174
VIX
At 23.04 @ 8:15 AM; down from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
Recent high = 31.16 on February 25; low = 19.69 on February 10
Sentiment: Risk-Off-Neutral
The trend and patterns on various time frames for S&P 500:
Monthly
Confirmed Uptrend
December 2020 was a green candle with a small gap and with almost no upper and lower shadows; all-time closing and intraday highs;
Stochastic %K above %D near 100;
RSI-9 above 70; broke above a downtrend line from January 2018
Above the upper band of a 120-month regression channel;
The sequence of higher highs and higher lows is resumed
Weekly:
The week ending on February 26 was a red candle with mall upper and lower shadows; a three-week Evening Star pattern is emerging
Stochastic (9,1, 3): %K is below %D, which is turning down and forming a Bearish Divergence
RSI (9) is below 60; potential Bearish Divergence emerging
The week was down -95.56 or -2.4%; the 5-week ATR is 122.78
A down week; second in a row, third in the last five weeks, and fifth in the last ten weeks
The weekly week pivot point=3843.11, R1=3896.69, R2=3982.22; S1=3757.58, S2=3704.00; S1/S2/S3 pivot levels were breached
At/above 10-week EMA, 39-week SMA, and 89-week SMA
Uptrend since March 23, 2020
Daily
A large green candle with no lower shadow and small upper shadow;
Broke above a symmetrical triangle at 3550.00 level on November 9; the 100% extension target near 3900.00 is achieved; 161.8% extension target is near 4140.00 levels
%K crossed above %D; just below 80
RSI-9 above 50; above 8-day EMA
Above 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA, 100-day, and 200-day SMA
Uptrend Under Pressure
2-Hour (E-mini futures)
Moving sideways since 2:00 PM on Monday after bouncing up from 3785.00 at 10:00 AM on Friday from a congestion area;
RSI-21 just above 60; Bullish Divergence on Friday
Above EMA10 of EMA50, which is above EMA20
Bias: Side-Down
30-Minute (E-mini futures)
Declined from Monday high of 3912.00 to 3866.25 at 4:0 AM; bounced up to 3890.00;
RSI-21 moving between 50 and 60
Above EMA20, which is above EMA10 of EMA50
Bias: Down-Side
15-Minute (E-mini futures)
The Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is moving sideways to down since 3:30 PM on Monday;
The Bollinger Band is expanding since 6:00 AM with price mostly walking up the upper band
Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K is below %D since 7:45 AM
Bias: Up-Side
Previous Session
Major U.S. indices closed higher on Monday, March 1 in mostly lower volume. Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in higher volume. Indices opened higher and then traded up for most of the day with a small retracement in the final hour of trading.
The S&P 500 rallied 2.4% on Monday, as investors indiscriminately bought last week’s dip amid a host of positive-sounding developments. The Nasdaq Composite (+3.0%) and Russell 2000 (+3.4%) rose at least 3.0%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+2.0%) followed behind with a 2.0% gain.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors contributed to the steady advance, eight of which advanced more than 2.0%. The information technology (+3.2%) and financials (+3.1%) sectors finished as influential leaders, while the real estate sector (+0.2%) underperformed with a modest gain after a strong start.
[…]
The 2-yr yield decreased two basis points to 0.12%, and the 10-yr yield decreased one basis point to 1.45%. The U.S. Dollar Index increased 0.2% to 91.04. WTI crude futures decreased 1.5%, or $0.91, to $60.54/bbl ahead of an OPEC+ meeting later this week.
[…]
The ISM Manufacturing Index for February jumped to 60.8% (Briefing.com consensus 58.8%) from 58.7% in January, matching the August 2018 reading as the highest since May 2004. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%. February marked the ninth straight month the ISM Manufacturing Index has been above 50.0%.
[…]
Total construction spending increased 1.7% m/m in January (Briefing.com consensus 0.6%) after increasing an upwardly revised 1.1% (from 1.0%) in December. Total private construction spending rose 1.7% m/m and total public construction spending increased 1.7%.
[…]
The February IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI increased to 58.6 from 58.5 in January.