Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher;
• The odds are for an up day – watch for a break below 4500.75 for a change of fortunes
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Pending Home Sales ( 0.5% est.; prev. -1.9%) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4507.30, 4496.47, and 4479.29
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4523.77, 4538.16, and 4563.00
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4513.25, the high of 7:30 PM and break below 4500.75, the low of 9:30 PM

Pre-Open

• On Friday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (September 2021) closed at 4505.00 and the index closed at 4509.37 – a spread of about -4.50 points; futures closed at 4505.50 for the day; the fair value is -0.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:15 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +4.00; Dow by +19; and NASDAQ by +14.75

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed higher
• European markets are mostly higher – Spain and Switzerland are lower;
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are higher
  • Precious metals are higher
  • Industrial metals are lower
  • Most soft commodities are mixed
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 1.312%, up +.5 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 1.918%, down -3.0 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.231%, up +1.8 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.081, up from 1.084
• VIX
  • At 16.60 @ 6:45 AM; down from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  24.74 on August 19; low =  15.19 on August 13
  • Sentiment: Risk-Neutral-On

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Friday, August 27 in mixed volume. The indices opened higher and achieved most of the gains in the early trading before settling into a sideways to up move. Dow Jones Transportation Average and NASDAQ Composite traded in lower volume. S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index made all-time intraday and closing highs. The major indices opened lower and then after the morning session mostly traded lower. Dow Transports are breaking above a downtrend line from the all-time high on May 10, 2021.

For the week, the major US indices closed higher in lower volume. The markets in Asia and Europe closed mostly higher. The dollar index was down, the commodities closed higher – cattle futures were down. The US Treasury yields moved up. All but 4 S&P sectors – the defensive sectors, Consumer Staples, Utilities, Healthcare, and Real Estate – closed higher

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 (+0.9%) and Nasdaq Composite (+1.2%) rallied to record highs on Friday, as the market reacted positively to Fed Chair Powell’s Jackson Hole speech on the economy and monetary policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the relative underperformer with a 0.7% gain, while the Russell 2000 pulled ahead with a 2.9% gain. […] The equity gains were relatively broad-based: Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished in positive territory, growth stocks and value stocks rose alike, and advancing issues outpaced declining issues by a 5:1 margin at the NYSE and by a 3:1 margin at the Nasdaq. The information technology sector (+1.0%) was an influential leader, but the energy sector (+2.6%) increased the most amid higher oil prices ($68.77/bbl, +1.42, +2.1%) and rebound momentum. The health care (-0.2%) and utilities (-0.03%) sectors closed slightly lower. […] The 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 1.31%, and the 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 0.22%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.4% to 92.68. […] Personal income was up 1.1% month-over-month in July (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%), bolstered by a 1.0% increase in wages and salaries and a 2.9% increase in personal current transfer receipts (think Child Tax Credit payments). Personal spending increased 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%), but real PCE declined 0.1% with the PCE Price Index up 0.4% (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%). The core PCE Price Index, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus +0.3%). […] The final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for August checked in at 70.3 (Briefing.com consensus 70.7), nearly even with the preliminary reading of 70.2. The final reading for July was 81.2. The downturn from July was one of the largest losses since 1978. […] The Advance report for International Trade in Goods for July showed a deficit of $86.4 billion, versus a revised $92.1 billion (from $91.2 billion) in June. The Advance report for Retail Inventories for July increased 0.4%, while the Advance report for Wholesale Inventories for July increased 0.6%. […] S&P 500 +20.1% YTD Nasdaq Composite +17.4% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +15.8% YTD Russell 2000 +15.3% YTD