Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher at 9:15 AM; drifting down since 5:00; down almost 40 points
• The odds are for an up day with a good chance of sideways to down move from pre-open levels with elevated volatility – watch for a break above 4249.25 and a break below 4200.50 for clarity
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Advance GDP (-1.4% vs. 1.1% est.; prev. 6.9%) at 8:30 AM
  • Advanced GDP Price Index ( 8.0% vs. 7.2% est.; prev. 7.1) at 8:30 AM
  • Unemployment Claims ( 180K vs. 178K est; prev. 185K) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4199.22, 4175.70, and 4161.72
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4240.71, 4278.14, and 4299.02
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4249.25, the high at 7:00 AM and a break below 4200.50, the low at 9:30 PM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2022) closed at 4179.50 and the index closed at 4183.96 – a spread of about -4.50 points; futures closed at 4180.25 for the day; the fair value is -0.75
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 9:15 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +51.75; Dow by +199; and NASDAQ by +219.25

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed higher
• European markets are higher
• Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are lower
  • Industrial metals are lower
  • Soft commodities are mostly lower
• Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 2.818%, up +13.1 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 2.908%, up +11.4 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 2.551%, up +19.9 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.267, down from 0.335
  • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.090, up from 0.107
• VIX
  • At 30.08 @ 8:30 AM; down from the last close; at the 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high = 33.81 on April 26; low = 19.75 on April 20
  • Sentiment: Risk-Neutral-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly higher on Wednesday, April 27, in mostly higher volume. NASDAQ Composite and Russell 2000 closed lower. Dow Jones Transportation Average and  Russell 2000 traded in lower volume. Most major indices made Doji or similar indecisive candles.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 increased 0.2% on Wednesday in a volatile session in which the benchmark index traded between a 0.3% decline and 1.6% gain. The Nasdaq Composite (unch), Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.2%), and Russell 2000 (-0.3%) closed mixed and little changed, also fading intraday gains. […] The S&P 500 communication services sector (-2.6%) was easily the worst-performing sector, […] Conversely, the information technology (+1.4%), materials (+1.5%), and energy (+1.5%) sectors each gained roughly 1.5%. […] The 2-yr yield increased two basis points to 2.57%, and the 10-yr yield increased five basis points to 2.82%. The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.7% to 102.97. WTI crude futures rose 0.3%, or $0.33, to $101.75/bbl. [..] The Advance report for International Trade in Goods for March showed a deficit of $125.3 billion, versus a revised $106.4 billion (from $106.6 billion) in February. The Advance report for Retail Inventories for March rose 2.0%, and the Advance report for Wholesale Inventories for March rose 2.3%. Pending home sales decreased 1.2% m/m in March (Briefing.com consensus -1.5%) following a revised 4.0% decline (from -4.1%) in February. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index fell 8.3% following a 5.0% decline in the prior week. […] Dow Jones Industrial Average -8.4% YTD S&P 500 -12.2% YTD Russell 2000 -16.1% YTD Nasdaq Composite -20.2% YTD Overseas:  Europe: DAX +0.3%, FTSE +0.5%, CAC +0.5% Asia: Nikkei -1.2%, Hang Seng +0.1%, Shanghai +2.5% Commodities:  Crude Oil +0.33 @ 101.75 Nat Gas +0.27 @ 7.06 Gold -11.10 @ 1890.20 Silver -0.08 @ 23.42 Copper +0.03 @ 4.47