Morning Notes – Thursday September 13, 2018

Directional Bias For The Day:

  • S&P Futures are higher; breaking above an ascending triangle on 30-minute chart
  • Odds are for an up day; watch for break below 2889.00 for change of fortune
  • Key economic data due:
    • Bank of England Policy Summary and Bank Rate at 7:00AM
    • CPI (est. 0.3%) at 8:30 AM
    • Core CPI (est. 0.2%) at 8:30 AM
    • Unemployment Claims (est. 210K) at 8:30 AM

Markets Around The World

  • Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Sydney was lower; Mumbai was closed
  • European markets are mostly higher – U.K and Italy are down
  • Currencies:
    Up Down
    • Dollar index
    • GBP/USD
    • USD/JPY
    • AUD/USD
    • USD/CAD
    • USD/INR
    • EUR/USD
    • USD/CHF
    • NZD/USD
  • Commodities:
    Up Down
    • NatGas (Unch.)
    • Copper
    • Platinum
    • Palladium
    • Sugar
    • Coffee
    • Cocoa
    • Crude Oil
    • Gold
    • Silver
    • Cotton
  • Bonds
    • 10-yrs yield is at 2.958%, down from September 12 close of 2.963%;
    • 30-years is at 3.118%, up from 3.106%
    • 2-years yield is at 2.765%, up from 2.748%
    • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.193, down from 0.215

Key Levels:

  • Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 2882.63, 2879.20 and 2866.78
  • Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 2892.65, 2898.22 and 2903.33
  • Key levels for eMini futures: break above 2895.00, the high of 1:30 AM on September 12 and break below 2889.00, the low of 5:30 AM

Pre-Open

  • On Wednesday, at 4:00 PM, S&P future (September contract) closed at 2888.75 and the index closed at 2888.92 – a spread of about -0.25 points; futures closed at 2888.50 for the day; the fair value is +0.25
  • Pre-NYSE session open, futures price action is to the upside – at 7:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +6.75; Dow by +64.00; and NASDAQ by +27.00

Directional Bias Before Open

  • Weekly: Uptrend
  • Daily: Uptrend
  • 120-Min: Side
  • 30-Min: Side
  • 15-Min: Side
  • 6-Min: Side-Up

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

Monthly
  • Confirmed Uptrend
  • December 2017 closed higher; index has been higher for the nine straight months; it has only one down month, March 2017, since October 2016
  • Uptrend resumption since Feb 08, 2016 after a pull back of -15.2%
Weekly:
  • The week ending on September 7 was a red candle with almost no upper shadow and small lower shadow; in danger of making  a 3-bar evening star pattern
  • Last week’s pivot point=2878.86, R1=2893.20 R2=2914.72; S1=2857.14, S2=2842.60; S1/S2 pivot levels were breached;
  • A down week in a row; third in last five weeks and second in last ten weeks
  • Broke above an ascending triangle but retraced back to its upper limit; 100% extension target is near 3070.00 level
  • Broke above a down sloping flag on April 24 2017;
    • flag-low was 2322.25 during 27-Mar-17 week; shorter flag-pole length is 317.19 and longer flag-pole length is 590.88;
    • 100% extension target of shorter flag-pole near 2639.44 and the 161.8% extension target near 2835.46 are achieved; the 261.8% extension target is near 3013.72
    • 61.8% extension target of longer flag-pole near 2687.41 is achieved; the 100% extension target is near 2913.13
  • Broke above a down-sloping flag on November 14, 2016;
    • the flag low was 2083.79 during 31-Oct-16 week; the shorter flag-pole length is 202.13 and the longer flag-pole length is 383.71;
    • 261.8% extension target of shorter flag-pole near 2612.97 is achieved
    • the 161.8% extension target of longer flag-pole near 2704.63 is achieved; the 261.8% extension target is near 3088.34
  • Last swing low, 2322.25, was the low on March 27, 2017; Last swing high, 2872.87, was during the week of January 22, 2-018; the low since the last swing high is 2532.69 during the week if February 5, 2018
  • Above 10-week EMA; above 39-week SMA and above 89-week SMA
  • Uptrend
Daily
  • A small doji with a real body just above prior day’s close; small upper and lower shadows
  • %K crossed above %D from below 20
  • Above 20-day EMA, above 50-day EMA, 100-day SMA and 200-day SMA
  • Uptrend
2-Hour (e-mini future)
  • Mostly moving along EMA50 since 8:00 AM on September 12; near a resistance zone formed buy the lows on August 31 and August 28
  • RSI-9 crossed above 40 at 8:00 AM on September 11; between 40 and 65 since then
  • Above 20-bar EMA, which is at/above EMA10 of EMA50
  • Bias: Side
30-Minute (e-mini future)
  • Trading mostly between 2895.00 and 2885.00 since 11:30 AM on September 11 except for few hours at the NYSE open on September 12
  • RSI-9 between 40 and 65 since 9:30 Am on September 11
  • Above 20-bar EMA, which is above 50-bar EMA
  • Bias: Side
15-Minute (e-mini future)
  • Bollinger Band (20, 2.0) is moving sideways since 4:15 PM on September 11
  • The band was mostly narrow from 9:30 PM on September 12 to 3:00 AM; expanding since then; price moved along upper band till 5:00 AM and then moved to middle and now again near the upper band
  • RSI mostly between 40 and 65 since 9:30 AM on September 11
  • The Stochastic (9, 1, 3): %K crossed above %D at 5:45 AM from below 20
  • Bias: Side

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed on Wednesday September 12 in higher volume. NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Transportation Average closed lower. S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, NYSE Composite and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index closed higher. Most made small real body candles.

  • S&P 500 Sectors
Up Down
  1. Consumer Discretionary
  2. Consumer Staples
  3. Energy
  4. Materials
  5. Industrials
  6. Heath Care
  7. Real Estate
  8. Telecom
  1. Finance
  2. Technology
  3. Utility