Energies Set Contract Highs
Forecasts of tighter oil supplies and rising demand continued fueling the energies today and propelled crude oil, unleaded gas and heating oil to new closing highs. December crude [CLZ9>CLZ9] rose .58 to 24.91. Unleaded gas [HUZ9>HUZ9] and heating oil [HOZ9>HOZ9] both registered on the Pullback Off Highs List,
rallied 24/32 to 114 30/32 following today’s better-than-expected productivity and wage growth data.
Stock index futures rallied back from a mid-session slump (spurred by a downgrade on Intel) to finish solidly in positive territory and on their highs of the day. December Dow futures [DJZ9>DJZ9] and the S&Ps [SPZ9>SPZ9], which also registered on the Pullback From Highs List, closed 189.0 and 13.70, respectively. The leading Momentum-5 List contract, NASDAQ 100 futures [NDZ9>NDZ9], closed at a new all-time high, adding 42.50 to 2908.50. The December contract has risen 17% in 12 sessions.
Dollar index futures [DXZ9>DXZ9] also got a boost from the higher productivity figures and from a technical pattern pointed out by Dave Landry in last night’s HREF=”/query/indicators/commentary/dlfutoutlook.cfm?link=dlfutoutlook”>Futures Trading Outlook. The December contract rose .62 to 100.65 and closed at a two-month high. Moving inversely against the dollar, the Japanese yen [JYZ9>JYZ9] fell .0055 to .9550, Swiss francs [SFZ9>SFZ9] fell .0070 to .6450 and British pound [BPZ9>BPZ9] tumbled .0112.
The metals had a down day. December silver [SIZ9>SIZ9] continued trading lower after Pulling back off lows and fell 4.3 to 505.5. Gold [GCZ9>GCZ9] slipped 2.8 to 292.1 and copper [HGZ9>HGZ9] lost .80 to 77.25.
Grains continued their descent and hit new multi-month lows. Corn, soybeans and soybean oil all registered on the Implosion-5 List.
December lean hogs [LHZ9>LHZ9] closed the gap left last June from four limit-down days, rallying 2.000 to 50.325. February pork bellies [PBG0>PBG0] climbed nearly their daily limit, rising 2.700 to 74.275.
Coffee [KCZ9>KCZ9], another Momentum-5 component, rallied to a six-month high and gained 5.95 to close at 122.50. November orange juice [OJF0>OJF0] added 2.30 to close at 96.55.