S&P500 Daily Action Areas & Price Targets 15/9/26

***QUOTING ES1!(Z CONTRACT LEVLES) FOR CASH US500 EQUIVALENT LEVELS, SUBTRACT POINT DIFFERENCE***

MONTHLY-WEEKLY& DAILY LEVELS

MONTHLY BULL BEAR ZONE 7440/7400

MONTHLY RANGE RES 7882 SUP 7490

WEEKLY BULL BEAR ZONE 7550/40

WEEKLY RANGE RES 7762/86 SUP 7538/46

DAILY BULL BEAR ZONE 7640/30

DAILY RANGE RES 7771 SUP 7629

2 SIGMA RES 7842 SUP 7558

GLOBEX RANGE RES 7721 SUP 7668

2 SIGMA RES 7748 SUP 7641

GAMMA FLIP 7684

DELTA FLIP 7721

PUT WALLS 7562/7596

CALL WALLS 7711/7665

UNFILLED GAPS 7634 - 7541

DAILY STRUCTURE - OTFH - 7662

WEEKLY STRUCTURE - OTFL - 7717

MONTHLY STRUCTURE - OTFH - 7542

VIX BULL BEAR ZONE 17.3  (VVIX / VIX) 5.19 A ratio near 5.2 suggests normal, stable volatility expectations, with VIX options pricing aligned to baseline fear gauges and no extreme stress or panic divergence.

PRIMARY TRADES & TARGETS 

LONG ON REJECT/RECLAIM  DBBZ TARGET DAILY RANGE RES

LONG ON REJECT/RECLAIM WBBZ TARGET

***ADDITIONAL SETUPS & TARGETS HIGHLIGHTED ON THE CHARTS***

(I FADE TESTS OF 2 SIGMA LEVELS ESPECIALLY INTO THE FINAL HOUR OF THE NY CASH SESSION AS 90% OF THE TIME WHEN TESTED THE MARKET WILL CLOSE ABOVE OR BELOW THESE LEVELS)

SPX PUT/CALL RATIO 1.11 (The numbers reflect options traded during the current session.) A put-call ratio below 0.7 is generally considered bullish, and a put-call ratio above 1.0 is generally considered bearish.

JHEQX Q3 Collar Short Call Cap: ~7,750 – 7,900 - Long Put Strike: ~7,050 – 7,100 (approx. 5% downside protection) Short Put Strike: ~5,950

DEC2025 OPEX to DEC2026 OPEX is 945 points giving us a range of [5889,7779]

Notes On Structure Implications

Balance: This refers to a market condition where prices move within a defined range, reflecting uncertainty as participants await further market-generated information. Our approach to balance includes favouring fade trades at the range extremes (highs/lows) while preparing for potential breakout scenarios if the balance shifts.

One-Time Framing Higher (OTFH): This represents a market trend where each successive bar forms a higher low, signalling a strong and consistent upward movement.

One-Time Framing Lower (OTFL): This describes a market trend where each successive bar forms a lower high, indicating a pronounced and steady downward movement.

GOLDMAN SACHS FICC & EQUITY TRADING DESK VIEWS

EQUITY & VOL DESK BRIEFING: ROTATION & FACTOR DISPERSION

Author: Mitch Jeter (Goldman Sachs Analyst, FICC & Equities) | Date: September 14, 2026

THE TAKE: RARE SOFTWARE-OVER-SEMIS ROTATION DRIVES EXTREME FACTOR DISPERSION

US equities closed lower on the session but staged an impressive intra-day bounce off session lows (NDX rallied >1% off its bottom). The defining market dynamic was a violent factor rotation out of AI infrastructure and hardware following Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s weekend essay calling for a slower pace of frontier model development.

The Software vs. Semis pair (GSPUSOSE) surged +12.56%—a 2.5 standard deviation move. Concurrently, AI vs. AI-at-Risk (GSPUARTI) dropped -9.96% (its worst single-day move since Deepseek, representing a -2.2 std dev drop). Momentum pair spreads widen to levels last seen around the 2020 US presidential election.

Macro yield and oil pressure eased slightly late in the session: 10-Year yields briefly touched 5.0% for the first time since October 2023 before pulling back, while crude moderated after Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement to refrain from targeting each other's energy infrastructure. Fed funds futures now price in a ~91% probability of a rate hike at Wednesday's FOMC meeting.

MARKET SUMMARY & ASSET MATRIX

Asset / Index

Closing Level / Price

Session Change

Volatility & Desk Color

Institutional & Desk Flow

S&P 500 (SPX)

7,619.00

-0.48%

Implied move through tomorrow: 0.52%

MOC: $280M to BUY; 2-3y downside sold

Nasdaq-100 (NDX)

29,127.00

-0.82%

Skew bid; vol bid in gamma, offered in back

Rallied >1% off intraday lows

Russell 2000 (RUT)

2,896.00

-24 bps

Outperformed spot; fixed strike vol & skew offered

Small-caps held up on rate moderation

Dow Jones (DJI)

52,421.00

-29 bps

-

Outperformed tech-heavy indices

US 10Y Treasury

4.9854%

+1.9 bps

Yields pulled back late session

91% hike chance priced for Sept 16 FOMC

WTI Crude

$101.82

+1.78%

9th green close in 10 sessions

Supported by postponed GCC-Iran talks

Gold

$4,283.00

-1.52%

Pulled back amid higher DXY (+36 bps to 99.48)

Profit-taking into strong USD

Bitcoin

$78,992.00

+2.16%

Outperformed traditional risk assets

Decoupled from tech hardware weakness

CBOE VIX

17.13

+8.14%

Gamma tenors bid in NDX / IGV

Surface vol elevated into FOMC

FACTOR & BASKET MOVERS

  • Software vs. Semis (GSPUSOSE): +12.56% (+2.5 $\sigma$ move). Semis dumped (SMH -4.5%) while software exploded higher (GS Expensive Software Basket GSCBSF8X +6.6%).

  • AI vs. AI-at-Risk (GSPUARTI): -9.96% (-2.2 $\sigma$ move). Worst single-day contraction since the Deepseek shockwave.

  • Momentum Factor Spreads: 3-Month Momentum (GSPHRMO3) +6.07% vs. 12-Month Momentum (GSPRHIMO) -6.71%, creating the widest momentum spread divergence since November 2020.

INSTITUTIONAL FLOWS & DERIVATIVES COLOR

  • Desk Activity (3/10 Rating): Desk finished -455 bps better for sale.

    • Asset Managers: Net sellers of -$1B (supply in Communication Services, Industrials, and Tech vs. minor macro ETF demand).

    • Hedge Funds: Small net sellers, concentrated in Tech and macro products.

  • Options & Skew Dynamics:

    • NDX & SPX: Skew was bid across NDX and SPX, but long-dated (2–3 year) downside puts saw active institutional selling.

    • Sector Volatility Dislocation: IGV (Software) vol was bid across the entire curve (especially in front-end gamma), while SMH (Semis) vol was unexpectedly offered despite the spot sell-off.

  • Notable Option Rolls:

    • NVIDIA (NVDA): Sizable call spread roll executed—customer bought 70,000 NVDA Nov 230/275 Call Spreads while selling 35,000 Dec 245/300 Call Spreads.