Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower;
• The odds are for a down day with a good chance of sideways move from pre-open levels – watch for a break above 3868.25 for a change of fortunes
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • HPI ( 1.1% vs. 1.0% est.; prev. 1.0%) at 9:00 AM
  • S&P/CS Composite-20 HPI ( 10.1% vs. 9.9% est.; prev. 9.2%) at 9:00 AM
  • CB Consumer Confidence ( 90.2 est.; prev. 89.3) at 10:00 AM
  • Richmond Manufacturing Index ( 15 est.; prev. 14 ) at 10:00 AM
  • Fed Chair Powell’s Testimony

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3843.09, 3830.11, and 3816.68
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3874.71, 3886.89, and 3902.92
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3868.50, the low of 7:00 PM and break below 3840.50, the low of 5:30 AM

Pre-Open

• On Monday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2021) closed at 3874.50 and the index closed at 3876.50 – a spread of about -2.00 points; futures closed at 3873.50 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 -22.25; Dow by -14, and NASDAQ by -241.25

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Shanghai and Seoul closed down; Tokyo was closed
• European markets are mostly lower – France and Spain are higher
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are higher
  • Industrial metals are higher
  • Most soft commodities are mostly higher
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 1.364%, up 20.4 BP from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 2.187%, up 24.9 BP;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.113%, up 0.4 BP;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.254, up from 1.051
• VIX
  • At 24.89 @ 7:00 AM; up from the last close; above 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  37.51 on January 29; low =  19.69 on February 10
  • Sentiment: Risk-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly lower on Monday, February 22 in mixed volume. Dow Jones Industrial Average and Dow Jones Transportation Average closed higher. S&P 500 and Russell 2000 traded in lower volume. Indices are near all-time highs and made small candlestick formations. Indices opened lower and then traded down and mostly closed in the lower half of the day’s trading. Markets are near all-time highs.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 lost 0.8% on Monday for its fifth straight decline, as weakness in the growth stocks outweighed relative strength in the value/cyclical stocks. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.5%, and the Russell 2000 declined 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.1%), however, eked out a gain. […] Those were typically found in the Nasdaq, the S&P 500 information technology (-2.3%) and consumer discretionary (-2.2%) sectors, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (-3.8%). […] The 10-yr yield finished the session one basis point higher at 1.36%. The 2-yr yield remained flat at 0.11%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.3% to 90.12. Interestingly, six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors still closed in positive territory, and the iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD 145.57, +0.57, +0.4%) closed at a record high. […] The S&P 500 financials sector advanced 1.0%, but the energy sector (+3.5%) noticeably outperformed with a 3.5% gain amid sharply higher oil prices ($61.63, +2.63, +4.5%). […] The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.5% m/m in January (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) following an upwardly revised 0.4% increase (from 0.3%) in December. January marked the ninth consecutive monthly increase. […] Russell 2000 +14.0% YTD Nasdaq Composite +5.0% YTD S&P 500 +3.2% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +3.0% YTD