Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher;
• The odds are for a sideways to an up day – watch for a break above 3843.50 and break below 3811.25 for clarity
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Unemployment Claims ( 779K vs. 828K est.; prev. 812K) at 8:30 AM
  • Prelim Nonforam Productivity ( -4.8% vs. -2.9% est.; prev. 4.6% ) at 8:30 AM
  • Prelim Labor Unit Cost ( 6.8% vs. 4.1% est.; prev. -6.6%) at 8:30 AM
  • Factory Orders ( 0.7% est.; prev. 1.0%) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3816.68, 3813.07, and 3791.84
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3839.23, 3848.05, and 3862.28
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3840.00, the high of 2:30 PM on Wednesday and break below 3811.25, the low of 12:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2021) closed at 3822.00 and the index closed at 3830.17 – a spread of about -8.25 points; futures closed at 3823.50 for the day; the fair value is -1.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 8:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +8.25; Dow by +23, and NASDAQ by +63.25

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly lower – Mumbai was up
• European markets are mostly higher – the UK and Spain are lower
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are higher
  • Precious metals are mixed
  • Industrial metals are mostly higher
  • Most soft commodities are mostly higher
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 1.131%, up 4.1 BP from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 1.912%, up 7.0 BP;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.117%, down 2.8 BP;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.014, up from 0.945
• VIX
  • At 22.71 @ 8:15 AM; down from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  37.51 on January 29; low =  21.09 on January 21
  • Sentiment: Risk-On-Neutral

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly higher on Wednesday, February 3 in mixed volume. NASDAQ Composite closed down and Dow Jones Transport Averages and Russell 200 traded in higher volume. Major indices mostly small indecisive candlestick formations.

From Briefing.com:

The stock market finished relatively unchanged on Wednesday, even though Alphabet (GOOG 2070.07, +142.50, +7.4%) and Amazon (AMZN 3312.53, -67.47, -2.0%) reported exceptional earnings results. The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (unch), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%) closed little changed, while the Russell 2000 gained 0.4%. […] The S&P 500 communication services sector climbed 2.1%, largely due to Alphabet’s influence and a trickle-down effect on other ad-based companies. The energy sector advanced the most with a 4.3% gain amid a lingering reopening optimism. Crude futures ($55.70, +0.93, +1.7%) settled above $55.00/bbl. The consumer discretionary (-0.8%), health care (-0.7%), real estate (-0.4%), and information technology (-0.3%) sectors were on the losing end of the action. […] The 10-yr yield increased three basis points to 1.13%, and the 2-yr yield was flat at 0.11%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.1% to 91.13. The CBOE Volatility Index dropped 10.4% to 22.91 amid decreased hedging interest. […] The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index rose to 58.7% in January (Briefing.com consensus 57.0%) from an upwardly revised 57.7% (from 57.2%) in December. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 50.0%. The January reading is the highest since February 2019 and reflects a pickup in the pace of expansion from December. […] The ADP Employment Change report estimated that 174,000 jobs were added to private-sector payrolls in January (Briefing.com consensus +55,000) following an upwardly revised 78,000 decline (from -123,000) in December. The IHS Markit Services PMI for January was revised higher to 58.3 from 57.5 in the preliminary reading. […] Russell 2000 +9.4% YTD Nasdaq Composite +5.6% YTD S&P 500 +2.0% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.4% YTD