Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are higher
• The daily bias is shifting from sideways to up
• The odds are for an up – watch for a break below 3911.00 for change of fortunes
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • ECB Monetary Policy Statement at 7:45 AM
  • ECB Press Conference at 8:30 AM
  • Unemployment Claims ( 730K est.; prev. 745K ) at 8:30 AM;
  • JOLTS Jobs Openings ( 6.65M est.; prev. 6.65M) at 10:00 AM
  • 30-yr Bond Auction at 1:01 PM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3906.38, 3894.16, and 3885.73
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3928.65, 3940.88, and 3950.06
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3929.00, the high of 5:45 AM and break below 3911.00, the low of 11:00 PM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (March 2021) closed at 3897.25 and the index closed at 3898.81 – a spread of about -1.50 points; futures closed at 3896.50 for the day; the fair value is +1.25
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are higher – at 7:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were up by +26.50; Dow by +108, and NASDAQ by +210.00

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Sydney was down and Mumbai was closed
• European markets are mixed – Germany, the UK, and Switzerland are down
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are mixed
  • Industrial metals are lower
  • Most soft commodities are mostly lower
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 1.520%, up 13.1 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 2.243%, up 0.1 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.161%, up 3.2 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.359, up from 1.260
• VIX
  • At 22.23 @ 6:45 AM; down from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  31.90 on March 4; low =  19.69 on February 10
  • Sentiment: Risk-On

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly higher on Wednesday, March 10 in lower volume. NASDAQ Composite closed down. Dow Jones Industrial Average made all-time highs. Indices are near all-time highs. NASDAQ Composite is showing the most weakness. All but one S&P sector – Technology – closed higher.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 advanced 0.6% on Wednesday, as value and cyclical stocks reclaimed their recent leadership roles and inflation concerns were put on hold. The pro-cyclical trade disproportionally benefited the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.5%) and Russell 2000 (+1.8%), with the Dow setting intraday and closing record highs. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.04%), however, closed slightly lower after being up as much as 1.6% intraday. The S&P 500 information technology sector (-0.4%) and Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (-1.8%) were other growth-stock pockets of weakness. […] Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed higher, including the cyclical energy (+2.6%), financials (+1.9%), and materials (+1.6%) sectors atop the standings on the back of follow through from buyers. […] The 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 1.52%, with the market showing little reaction to the tepid $38 billion 10-yr note auction in the afternoon. The 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 0.15%. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.2% to 91.79. WTI crude futures increased 0.7%, or $0.43, to $64.45/bbl. […] Total CPI increased 0.4% m/m, as expected, while core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.1% (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%). The monthly changes left total CPI up 1.7% yr/yr, versus 1.4% in January; however, the yr/yr increase in core CPI edged lower to 1.3% from 1.4% in January. […] The February Treasury Budget showed a $310.9 bln deficit, versus a $235.3 bln deficit in the same period a year ago. The budget data is not seasonally adjusted, so the February deficit can’t be compared to the January deficit of $162.8 bln. […] The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index decreased 1.3% following a 0.5% increase in the prior week. […] Russell 2000 +15.7% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +5.5% YTD S&P 500 +3.8% YTD Nasdaq Composite +1.4% YTD