Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are little changed;
• The odds are for a sideways to down day – watch for a break above 3483.50 and break below 3462.25 for clarity
• Key economic data due:
  • Unemployment Claims ( 1006K vs. 1000K est. ; prev. 1106K ) at 8:30 AM
  • Prelim GDP (-31.7% vs. -32.5% est.; prev. -32.9%) at 8:30 AM
  • Prelim GDP Price Index (-2.0% vs. -1.8% est.; prev. -1.8%) at 8:30 AM
  • Fed Chair Powell Speech – Jackson Hole at 9:10 AM
  • Pending Home Sales ( 2.5% est.; prev. 16.6%) at 10:00 AM
  • Jackson Hole Symposium – all day

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3465.83, 3444.15, and 3425.84
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3481.07, 3491.82 and 3504.90
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3483.50, the high of 4:30 PM on Wednesday and break below 3462.25, the low of 3:00 PM on Wednesday

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (September 2020) closed at 3475.00 and the index closed at 3478.73 – a spread of about -3.75 points; futures closed at 3480.25 for the day; the fair value is -5.25
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are lower – at 8:45 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -5.25; Dow by -25 and NASDAQ by -21.75

Markets Around The World

• Markets in East closed mixed – Shangai, Sydney, and Mumbai closed up; Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore closed down
• European markets are mostly lower – Switzerland is up
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  

  Up	Down
  NatGas Copper Platinum Cocoa	Crude Oil Gold Silver Palladium Sugar Coffee Cotton

• Bond
  • 10-yrs yield is at 0.675%, down from August 26 close of 0.687%;
  • 30-years is at 1.399% down from 1.406%
  • 2-years yield is at 0.145% down from 0.153%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.527 down from 0.534
• VIX
  • Is at 23.32; up +0.05 from August 26 close; above 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high 33.67 on July 14; low 20.28 on August 11
  • Sentiment: Risk-Neutral

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed mostly higher on Wednesday, August 26 in mostly lower volume. Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Transportation Average closed down. S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite traded in higher volume and also made all-time closing and intraday highs.

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 (+1.0%) and Nasdaq Composite (+1.7%) rallied to fresh record highs on Wednesday, propelled higher by some eye-popping gains in the mega-cap stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased just 0.3%, while the Russell 2000 was left in the dust with a 0.7% decline. […] Consequently, today’s leadership came from the S&P 500 communication services (+3.7%), information technology (+2.1%), and consumer discretionary (+1.5%) sectors, which are home to many of the mega-caps. In the afternoon, the gains broadened out to the materials (+1.0%), industrials (+0.1%), and consumer staples (+0.1%) sectors. […] U.S. Treasuries finished the day little changed. The 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 0.15%, and the 10-yr yield increased one basis point to 0.69%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.1% to 92.91. WTI crude futures increased by 0.1% to $43.39/bbl. […] New orders for durable goods increased 11.2% m/m in July (Briefing.com consensus +3.9%) from an upwardly revised 7.7% (from 7.6%) in June. Excluding transportation, new orders jumped 2.4% m/m (Briefing.com consensus +1.8%) following an upwardly revised 4.0% increase (from 3.6%) in June. The key takeaway from the report is that increased orders were seen across the manufacturing complex (other than nondefense aircraft and parts), underscoring a recovery-minded disposition in the wake of the COVID shutdown period. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index declined 6.5% following a 3.3% decrease in the prior week. […] Nasdaq Composite +30.0% YTD S&P 500 +7.7% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.7% YTD Russell 2000 -6.5% YTD ..NYSE Adv/Dec 1158/1809. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1432/1910.