Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are lower at 8:30 AM; trending down since 2:00 PM on Wednesday – moving sideways to down since 3:30 AM
• The odds are for a down day – watch for a break above 4153.75 and 4170.00 for a change of sentiments
• The major economic data report due during the day:
  • Unemployment Claims (24K vs. 240K est; prev. 240K) at 8:30 AM
  • Philly Fed Manufacturing PMI ( -31.3 vs. -19.1 est.; prev. -23) at 8:30 AM
  • Existing Home Sales ( 4.50M est.; prev. 4.58M) at 10:00 AM
  • CB Leading Index ( -0.7% est., prev. -0.3%) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4113.20, 4099.40, and 4086.94
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 4134.49, 4148.65, and 4162.57
• The key levels for E-mini futures are a break above 4153.75, the high at 7:15 AM, and a break below 4143.00, the low at 7:45 AM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2023) closed at 4178.50, and the index closed at 4154.52 – a spread of about +24.00 points; the futures closed at 4178.00; the fair value is -0.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures were lower – at 8:30 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -31.75, Dow by -184, and NASDAQ by -129.250

Markets Around The World

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

• Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are mixed
  • Industrial metals are higher
  • Soft commodities are mostly higher
• Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
  • The 10-year yield closed at 3.578, up +29.1 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • The 30-year is at 3.777%, up +21.9 basis points;
  • The 2-year yield is at 4.246%, up +44.2 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at -0.668, down from -0.517
  • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.199, down from +0.271
• VIX
  • At 17.50 @ 8:00 AM; up from the last close; above the 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high = 25.21 on March 24; low = 16.14 on November 4, 2021
  • Sentiment: Risk-Off

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mixed on Wednesday, April 19, in lower volume. S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and NYSE Composite closed lower.

The major indices gapped down at the open but turned around and moved higher for most of the day.

From Briefing.com:

[…] Major indices were confined to narrow trading ranges, registering only modest gains or losses throughout the session. […] The market had more of a negative bias initially, but several mega cap stocks recovered from early weakness and boosted index performance. […] Roughly half of the S&P 500 sectors logged a gain, but moves in either direction were limited. The utilities (+0.8%), real estate (+0.6%), and health care (+0.3%) sectors led the outperformers while the communication services sector (-0.7%) brought up the rear. […] The 2-yr note yield rose five basis points to 4.26% and the 10-yr note yield rose three basis points to 3.60%. […] Nasdaq Composite: +16.2% YTD S&P 500: +8.2% YTD S&P Midcap 400: +3.3% YTD Russell 2000: +2.2% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average: +2.3% YTD […] Weekly MBA Mortgage Application Index fell 8.8% with purchase applications plunging 10% and refinance applications declining 6.0% Weekly EIA Crude Oil Inventories showed a draw of 4.58 million barrels following last week’s build of 0.597 million barrels. […] Overseas:  Europe: DAX +0.1%, FTSE -0.1%, CAC +0.2% Asia: Nikkei -0.2%, Hang Seng -1.4%, Shanghai -0.7% Commodities:  Crude Oil -1.55 @ 79.34 Nat Gas -0.14 @ 2.23 Gold -11.20 @ 2008.20 Silver +0.12 @ 25.39 Copper -0.01 @ 4.08