Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower at 9:00 AM; steadily declined more than 55 points since 6:15 Pm on Tuesday; fresh leg down following economic reports at 8:30 AM
• The odds are for a down day with elevated volatility – watch for a break above 4061.50 for a change of sentiments
• The key economic data report is due during the day
  • Housing Starts ( 1.72M vs. 1.75M est.; prev. 1.73M) at 8:30 AM
  • Building Permits ( 1.82M vs. 1.81M est.; prev. 1.88M) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4043.04, 4033.93, and 4000.60
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4075.4, 4090.70, and 4096.26
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4061.50, the high at 8:15 AM and a break below 4029.75, the low at 10:45 AM on Tuesday

Pre-Open

• On Tuesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2022) closed at 4086.25 and the index closed at 4088.85 – a spread of about -2.25 points; futures closed at 4084.75 for the day; the fair value is +1.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:45 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -33.75; Dow by -191; and NASDAQ by -146.00

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mostly higher – Shanghai and Mumbai closed lower
• European markets are mostly lower – Spain is higher;
• Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are higher
  • Precious metals are lower
  • Industrial metals are lower
  • Soft commodities are mixed
• Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 2.977%, up +1.7 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 3.167%, up +16.1 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 2.680%, down -4.7 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.297, up from 0.233
  • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.190, up from 0.046
• VIX
  • At 26.71 @ 8:20 AM; up from the last close; below the 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high = 35.48 on May 9; low = 24.94 on May 4
  • Sentiment: Risk-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed higher on Tuesday, May 17, in higher volume. Major indices opened higher and after a brief retreat, they advanced higher for the rest of the day. All but one S&P sectors – Consumer Staples – closed higher.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 rose 2.0% on Tuesday, as the market was supported by a contrarian mindset and a reprieve in growth concerns. The Nasdaq Composite (+2.8%) and Russell 2000 (+3.2%) raced ahead the benchmark index with about 3% gains while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed higher by at least 1.0%, including five sectors with gains over 2.0%. […] The 2-yr yield rose nine basis points to 2.67%, and the 10-yr yield rose nine basis points to 2.97%. The U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.8% to 103.35. WTI crude futures fell 1.4%, or $1.59, to $112.21/bbl. […] Total retail sales increased 0.9% month-over-month in April (Briefing.com consensus 1.1%) following an upwardly revised 1.4% increase (from 0.5%) in March. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.6% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%) after increasing an upwardly revised 2.1% (from 1.1%) in March. […] Total industrial production increased 1.1% month-over-month in April (Briefing.com consensus 0.5%), marking the fourth consecutive month of gains of 0.8% or greater. The capacity utilization rate increased to 79.0% (Briefing.com consensus 78.6%) from a downwardly revised 78.2% (from 78.3%) in March. […] The NAHB Housing Market Index for May decreased to 69 (Briefing.com consensus 75) from 77 in April. Business inventories increased 2.0% m/m in March (Briefing.com consensus 1.9%) following a revised 1.8% increase (from +1.5%) in February. […] Dow Jones Industrial Average -10.1% YTD S&P 500 -14.2% YTD Russell 2000 -18.0% YTD Nasdaq Composite -23.4% YTD Overseas:  Europe: DAX +1.6%, FTSE +0.7%, CAC +1.3% Asia: Nikkei +0.4%, Hang Seng +3.3%, Shanghai +0.7% Commodities:  Crude Oil -1.59 @ 112.21 Nat Gas +0.33 @ 8.33 Gold +3.20 @ 1818.10 Silver +0.19 @ 21.70 Copper +0.03 @ 4.22