Call In The Troops
British troops have been called in to combat a
foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in England. Grains, especially soybean meal, and
meats rallied.
Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly infectious disease
that hampers milk production in cattle and eventually leads to the demise of
herds. The virus can travel up to a kilometer in the air. Earlier this year,
a foot-and-mouth scare spurred a rally in US cattle futures after images of
an outbreak in the UK — and the prophylactic burning of herds — painted
television screens.
Pork rallied on the UK cattle scare. Pork is a substitute
meat product for beef. February 2002 pork bellies
(
PBG2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
rallied nearly their daily limit, closed at a four-month high, and at the
breakout point of an ascending daily triangle.
October lean hogs
(
LHV1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), more beaten down than bellies,
bounced off support defined by recent lows and last April’s highs. Hogs
posted a strong up bar, up 1.425 at 58.250, and worked to refute the theory
for a breakdown below their head-and-descending-right-shoulder
pattern.
October
live cattle
(
LCV1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also rallied, adding .350 to 73.150 in the
second up bar in three days
December soymeal
(
SMZ1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) drove grains higher
on thoughts that quarantined herds would demand more of the product. Meal
rallied throughout the session and then exploded to close at the top of a recent
flag range. Meal added nearly 3%, or 4.8 to 168.6.
This pushed
November soybeans
(
SX1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) higher too, adding 5 cents to
486.
December wheat
(
WZ1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) also got going
after fewer-than-expected notices to deliver September wheat signaled more
purchases of back-month product. Bullish crop forecast fundamentals helped too.
Wheat climbed 3.14 to 289.
The National Association of Purchasing
Management-Chicago gave observers their first indication that the
manufacturing recession weighing on the economy for nearly a year could be
drawing to a close. Financial futures, and the dollar, rallied after the
most brutal week of selling in stock index futures of the summer.
Two clues from the Futures Indicators pages again
alerted you to possible upside in stock index futures. From the
Turtle Soup Plus One Buy List,
Nasdaq 100 futures
(
NDU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) signaled they could reverse and a CVR III
signal from the Market
Bias Indicators Page also suggested a turnaround from a multi-month low in the indexes. All
three index futures added a fraction of a percent and may be forming a
short-term bottom.
September dollar index futures
(
DXU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) stemmed a six-week slide
from highs and finished their second consecutive week higher. Even though
the euro FX futures
(
ECU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and
British pounds
(
BPU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) nuzzled new multi-month highs and have been
dominating the Momentum-5
List, the dollar made it two-for-two on the weeklies.
British pounds
(
BPU1 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) ,which are the leading futures on the
Momentum-5 List, turned around today to make good on their Turtle Soup Plus One
Sell reversal and closed down .0040 at 1.4538.