Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are little changed;
• The odds are for a sideways day — watch for a break above 4487.50 and a break below 4476.75 for clarity
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Durable Goods Orders ( -0.3% est.; prev. 0.9%) at 8:30 AM
  • Core Durable Goods Orders ( 0.5% est.; prev. 0.5%) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4478.67, 44465.95, and 4450.29
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4491.54, 4497.64, and 4502.46
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4487.50, the high of 4:15 AM and break below 4476.75, the low of 12:45 AM

Pre-Open

• On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (September 2021) closed at 4483.00 and the index closed at 4486.23 – a spread of about -3.25 points; futures closed at 4482.50 for the day; the fair value is +0.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are little changed – at 8:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -1.00; Dow up by +4; and NASDAQ down by -6.50

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Hong Kong and Mumbai were down
• European markets are mostly higher – Germany, Italy, and Switzerland are lower;
• Currencies (from two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (from two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are lower
  • Precious metals are higher
  • Industrial metals are mostly lower
  • Most soft commodities are mixed
• Treasuries (from two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 1.290%, down -5.2 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 1.907%, down -7.7 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 0.246%, up +0.6 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 1.044, up from 1.102
• VIX
  • At 17.33 @ 7:00 AM; up from the last close; below 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high =  24.74 on August 19; low =  15.19 on August 13
  • Sentiment: Risk-On-Neutral

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Tuesday, August 24 in mostly lower volume.  Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in lower volume. The day’s price range was small and the move was mostly sideways. S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, and Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index made all-time closing and intraday highs.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 (+0.2%) and Nasdaq Composite (+0.5%) rose modestly on Tuesday, setting intraday and closing record highs in a tame session. The Nasdaq topped the 15,000 level for the first time ever while the S&P 500 flirted with the 4,500 level. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased just 0.1%. The Russell 2000 outperformed its large-cap peers with a 1.0% gain. […] The S&P 500 energy (+1.6%), consumer discretionary (+0.8%), materials (+0.7%), financials (+0.7%), and industrials (+0.5%) sectors finished atop the sector standings. Energy stocks derived their strength from the continued rebound in oil prices ($67.50, +1.90, +2.9%) Conversely, the consumer staples (-0.8%), real estate (-0.7%), utilities (-0.6%), and health care (-0.3%) sectors closed lower for the second straight day. […] The 10-yr yield rose four basis points to 1.29% while the 2-yr yield slipped one basis point to 0.22% following a strong $60 bln 2-yr note auction. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.2% to 92.88. […] New home sales increased 1.0% month-over-month in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000 (Briefing.com consensus 700,000) from an upwardly revised 701,000 (from 676,000) in June. On a yr/yr basis, which encompasses a tough pandemic comparison period, new home sales were down 27.2%. […] S&P 500 +19.4% YTD Nasdaq Composite +16.5% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average +15.6% YTD Russell 2000 +13.0% YTD Overseas:  Europe: DAX +0.3%, FTSE +0.2%,CAC -0.3% Asia: Nikkei +0.9%, Hang Seng +2.5%, Shanghai +1.1% Commodities:  Crude Oil +2.07 @ 67.65 Nat Gas -0.03 @ 3.91 Gold +0.70 @ 1807.70 Silver +0.25 @ 23.89 Copper +0.03 @ 4.26