Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower at 9:00 AM; trending down since 10:30 AM on Monday
• The first nine days of August are historically weak (Stock Trader’s Almanac)
• The odds are for a down day with elevated volatility – watch for a break above 4106.50 and above 4122.25 for a change of sentiments
• The key economic data report due during the day:
  • JOLTS Job Openings ( 10.99M est.; prev. 11.25M) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4096.02, 4091.61, and 4079.22
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4115.54, 4129.30, and 4144.88
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4106.50, the high at 1:00 AM and a break below 4083.50, the low at 6:30 AM

Pre-Open

• On Monday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (September 2022) closed at 4119.75,  and the index closed at 4118.63 – a spread of about +1.00 points; the futures closed at 4120.50; the fair value is -0.75
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:45 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -28.75, Dow by -197; and NASDAQ by -125.00

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed mixed – Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul closed lower
• European markets are mostly lower – Spain is higher
• Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):

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

• Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are higher
  • Industrial metals are higher
  • Soft commodities are mixed
• Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
  • The 10-year yield closed at 2.548%, down -41.2 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • The 30-year is at 2.973%, down -26.2 basis points;
  • The 2-year yield is at 2.868%, down -26.0 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at -0.320, up from -0.168
  • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.325, up from 0.175
• VIX
  • At 24.19 @ 8:00 AM; up from the last close; above the 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high = 29.06 on July 13; low = 21.21 on July 29
  • Sentiment: Risk-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly lower on Monday, August 1, in mixed volume. Dow Jones Transportation Average and Russell 2000 traded in higher volume. Transports closed higher. Most major indices made Harami Dojis.

From Briefing.com:

[…] Higher growth areas outpaced the broader market in the early going on the heels of the July ISM Manufacturing Index before losing their influence by the close. […] The 2s10s inversion widened today with the 10-yr note yield falling four basis points to 2.61% while the 2-yr note yield rose one basis point to 2.91%. […] The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK), which was up 0.9% this morning, closed down 0.2% and just a hair in front of the S&P 500. The PHLX Semiconductor Index was up 1.3% at its high but closed with a modest gain of 0.4%. […] The defensive-oriented consumer staples sector (+1.2%) was at the top of the leaderboard […] The energy sector (-2.2%) was the top laggard in the face of falling oil prices. WTI crude oil futures fell 4.7% to $93.93/bbl. Natural gas futures fell 0.7% to $8.26/mmbtu. Unleaded gasoline futures fell 3.2% to $3.00/gal. […] July IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI – Final 52.2%; Prior 52.3% July ISM Manufacturing Index 52.8% (Briefing.com consensus 52.5%); Prior 53.0% […] June Construction Spending -1.1% (Briefing.com consensus 0.2%); Prior was revised to 0.1% from -0.1% […] Dow Jones Industrial Average: -9.7% YTD S&P 400: -11.6% YTD S&P 500: -13.6% YTD Russell 2000: -16.1% YTD Nasdaq Composite: -20.9% YTD Overseas:  Europe: DAX -0.0%, FTSE -0.1%, CAC -0.2% Asia: Nikkei +0.7%, Hang Seng +0.1%, Shanghai +0.2% Commodities:  Crude Oil -4.62 @ 93.93 Nat Gas -0.06 @ 8.30 Gold +3.30 @ 1786.30 Silver +0.05 @ 20.29 Copper -0.05 @ 3.51