What’s Up, What’s Down: Soy Complex in Downtrend

Comments for Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Looking Ahead to Today by Reflecting Back at Tuesday’s Price Action

GRAINS:

Higher closes yesterday for corn, oats, soybeans and soy meal while lower for Minneapolis, Kansas City and Chicago wheat along with soy oil and rough rice. All of the wheat closed lower with Minneapolis and Chicago making new recent highs first. The follow through from Monday’s sharply higher closes was weak as spread trading seems to be stronger than ever, at least in lighter volume markets. However, now there are potential bottoms forming while their overall trends are still lower with Minneapolis having resistance around the 575 level and KC the 550 level. Corn settled higher again making its highest close since December 12th acting like it will test the upper end of its trading range between 375 and 425 (since October). The big issue seems to be the 5% corn still out in the fields and how that could affect the carryover. Rice settled lower still needing to hold 1422.5 with resistance over the150 area basis the January contract. Oats closed higher again following through from Monday’s strong action but having good resistance at the 270 level. The beans and meal closed higher for the 4th trading session in a row while oil settled lower. The beans, meal and oil are still in a short-term downtrend while all in resistance areas at this time. I hold Buy Signals for Oats; Sell Signals for Wheat, Beans, Meal and Soy oil. Please feel free to contact me for details.

Wheat Chart

ENERGIES:

Higher settlements Tuesday for crude oil and heating oil while lower for the rbob and natural gas. All of the energies are still in strong resistance areas but acting like they’re starting to turn back higher. The heating oil is now at the upper end of its resistance. Crude needs to close over 8000(Mar. contract) to eliminate my sell signal. Natural gas made its highest high since late October again but not affected by last Thursday’s reversal type action.

See the balance of my morning comments, including the Metals, Softs, Energies and Grains, at my website. For my complete coverage, visit my commentary page at www.markethead.com.

Rick Alexander has been a broker and analyst in the futures business for over thirty years. He is a Vice-President for Sales and Trading at the Zaner Group (www.zaner.com) a Chicago-based futures brokerage firm. If you would like a free booklet explaining the charts mentioned above, email Rick at ralexander@zaner.com.

The information in this Report and the opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation by Rick Alexander or the Zaner Group of the purchase or sale of any futures or options. Futures and options trading is speculative in nature and involves risks. Spread trading is not necessarily less risky than outright positions. Futures and options trading is not suitable for all investors.