Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are little changed;
• The odds are for a sideways to up day – watch for a break above 3516.25 and break below 3494.25 for clarity
• Key economic data due:
  • Final Manufacturing PMI ( 53.1 vs. 53.6 est. ; prev. 53.6 ) at 9:45 AM
  • ISM Manufacturing PMI ( 56.0 vs. 54.6 est.; prev. 54.2 ) at 10:00 AM
  • Construction Spending  ( 0.1% vs. 1.0% est.; prev. -0.5%) at 10:00 AM
  • ISM Manufacturing Prices ( 59.5 ; prev. 53.2 ) at 10:00 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 3493.25, 3484.32, and 3468.35
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 3514.77, 3524.30 and 3533.82
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 3516.25, the high of 3:30 AM and break below 3494.25, the low of 9:00 PM

Pre-Open

• On Monday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (September 2020) closed at 3492.50 and the index closed at 3500.31 – a spread of about -7.75 points; futures closed at 3499.00 for the day; the fair value is -6.50
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are mixed – at 9:00 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -2.50; Dow down by -117 and NASDAQ up by +66.50

Markets Around The World

• Markets in East closed mostly higher – Tokyo and Sydney closed down
• European markets are mostly lower – Switzerland is up
• Currencies:
  

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

• Commodities:
  

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

• Bond
  • 10-yrs yield is at 0.713%, up from August 31 close of 0.693%;
  • 30-years is at 1.487% up from 1.452%
  • 2-years yield is at 0.141% up from 0.139%
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.572 up  from 0.554
• VIX
  • Is at 26.07; down -0.34 from August 31 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 lower on Monday, August 31 in mostly higher volume. NASDAQ Composite closed higher and Dow Jones Transportation Average traded in lower volume. NASDAQ Composite also made all-time closing and intraday highs. All but three S&P sectors – Technology, Utility, and Healthcare – closed lower.

From Briefing.com:

Mega-cap tech powered the Nasdaq Composite to a 0.7% gain and to new record highs on Monday. The S&P 500 set an intraday record high but declined 0.2% amid relative weakness in the broader market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%, and the Russell 2000 fell 1.0%. There was an absence of new macro developments, so the same tech-related stocks continued to set the winning pace at the expense of the cyclical stocks within the energy (-2.2%), materials (-1.5%), financials (-1.2%), and industrials (-1.2%) sectors. Declining issues outpaced advancing issues by more than a 2:1 margin at the NYSE. […] U.S. Treasuries saw modest gains amid the underlying weakness in the stock market. The 2-yr yield declined two basis points to 0.13%, and the 10-yr yield declined four basis points to 0.69%. The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.2% to 92.19. WTI crude futures declined 0.8%, or $0.35, to $42.62/bbl. […] Nasdaq Composite +31.2% YTD S&P 500 +8.3% YTD Dow Jones Industrial Average -0.4% YTD Russell 2000 -6.4% YTD ..NYSE Adv/Dec 904/2069. ..NASDAQ Adv/Dec 1229/2115.