Directional Bias For The Day:

• S&P Futures are a bit lower at 8:15 AM; moving down since 7:00 AM from a high of 4496.75;
• The odds are for a  sideways to a down day with elevated volatility – watch for a break above 4496.75 and a break below 4454.25 for more clarity
• Key economic data report due during the day:
  • Unemployment Claims (166K vs. 201K est.; prev. 171K) at 8:30 AM

Directional Bias Before Open:

Key Levels:

• Critical support levels for S&P 500 are 4468.64, 4450.04, and 4424.30
• Critical resistance levels for S&P 500 are 449.23, 4503.94, and 4514.17
• Key levels for E-mini futures: break above 4496.75, at 7:00 AM and a break below 4454.25 at 12:00 AM

Pre-Open

• On Wednesday at 4:00 PM, S&P futures (June 2022) closed at 4475.50 and the index closed at 4481.15 – a spread of about -5.75 points; futures closed at 4475.75 for the day; the fair value is -0.25
• Pre-NYSE session open, futures are mixed – at 8:15 AM, S&P 500 futures were down by -1.25; Dow down by -63; and NASDAQ up by +8.00

Markets Around The World

• Markets in the East closed lower
• European markets are mostly lower – Switzerland was up
• Currencies (Compared to two weeks ago):
  

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

• Commodities (Compared to two weeks ago):
  • Energy futures are mixed
  • Precious metals are lower
  • Industrial metals are lower
  • Soft commodities are mostly lower
• Treasuries (Compared to two weeks ago)
  • 10-years yield closed at 2.609%, up +28.8 basis points from two weeks ago;
  • 30-years is at 2.632%, up +11.3 basis points;
  • 2-years yield is at 2.416%, up +30.7 basis points;
  • The 10-Year-&-2-Year spread is at 0.193, down from 0.212
  • The 30-Year-&-10-Year spread is at 0.023, down from 0.198
• VIX
  • At 21.80 @ 7:00 AM; down from the last close; above the 5-day SMA;
  • Recent high = 33.83 on March 15; low = 18.45 on April 4
  • Sentiment: Risk-Neutral-On

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

Previous Session

Major U.S. indices closed lower on Wednesday, April 6, in higher volume. Major indices gapped down at the open and then declined more in the morning session. Indices then moved sideways near the lows till the release of FOMC meeting minutes at 2:00 PM and then recovered some of the losses in volatile trade. 

From Briefing.com:

The S&P 500 fell 1.0% on Wednesday, as concerns about the Fed’s hawkish mindset, rising interest rates, and slower economic growth continued to pressure risk sentiment. Growth stocks paced the retreat and accounted for the underperformance of the Nasdaq Composite (-2.2%). The Russell 2000 struggled with a 1.4% decline while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined just 0.4%. […] For example, interest rates hit fresh multi-year highs, which worked against the mega-caps within the S&P 500 information technology (-2.6%), consumer discretionary (-2.6%), and communication services (-2.1%) sectors for valuation reasons. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK 229.78, -5.89) fell 2.5%. In addition, investors continued to lean defensively into the utilities (+2.0%), health care (+1.6%), real estate (+1.6%), and consumer staples (+1.4%) sectors. The energy sector (+0.5%), to be fair, also landed in the green despite a 5% decline in oil prices ($96.59/bbl, -4.94, -4.9%). […] The 2-yr yield decreased two basis points to 2.49% (topped 2.60% overnight) while the 10-yr yield rose six basis points to 2.61% (topped 2.65% overnight). The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.1% to 99.61. […] The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index fell 6.3% following a 6.8% decline in the prior week. Crude oil inventories had a build of 2.42 mln barrels following a draw of 3.45 mln barrels in the prior week. […] Dow Jones Industrial Average -5.1% YTD S&P 500 -6.0% YTD Russell 2000 -10.2% YTD Nasdaq Composite -11.2% YTD Overseas:  Europe: DAX -1.9%, FTSE -0.3%, CAC -2.2% Asia: Nikkei -1.6%, Hang Seng -1.9%, Shanghai +0.0% Commodities:  Crude Oil -4.94 @ 96.59 Nat Gas +0.03 @ 6.06 Gold -5.80 @ 1920.90 Silver -0.12 @ 24.33 Copper -0.08 @ 4.70