British Pounds Jump To New High
December British pounds [BPZ9>BPZ9] gapped open and rose to a year-to-date high on speculation that the Bank of England will raise interest rates. The pound, which has been in a strong trend (its ADX Reading is 32), registered on the Momentum-5 List and
closed .0136 higher at 1.6770. Swiss francs [SFZ9>SFZ9] rose .0049 to .6835.
December dollar index futures [DXZ9>DXZ9] fell .71 to 97.24.
T-bonds [USZ9>USZ9] rallied in a flight to safety this morning as equities took a pounding early in the session thanks to IBM’s warning yesterday about Y2K-related revenue problems. The December contract finished down 6/32 at 110 31/32.
Stock index futures had a volatile day in response to IBM’s announcement and finished mixed. December Dow futures [DJZ9>DJZ9] came back from a triple-digit loss to end down 37 at 10,380.0. S&P futures [SPZ9>SPZ9] closed 3.50 higher at 1296.00 and NASDAQ 100 futures [NDZ9>NDZ9] gained 42.00 to 2513.00.
The energies closed up on the day: December crude [CLZ9>CLZ9] gained .13 to 22.61, unleaded gas [HUZ9>HUZ9] and heating oil [HOZ9>HOZ9] finished slightly higher and natural gas [NGZ9>NGZ9] made good on its Momentum-5 reading, closing .043 higher at 3.187.
December gold [GCZ9>GCZ9] continued its recent decent, hitting a two-week low of 302.2 and closing down 1.8 at 305.5.
The grains fell for a second day: soybean contracts have been appearing on the Multiple Days Low Volatility and Implosion-5 lists.
November soybeans [SX9>SX9] fell 8 1/4 to 479 3/4, December soybean oil [BOZ9>BOZ9] slipped .14 to 16.23 and soymeal [SMZ9>SMZ9] closed 3.5 lower at 150.4.
Livestock contracts are diverging: cattle contracts hit new 10-day lows and
pork contracts are setting up in bullish patterns near recent highs. December lean hogs [LHZ9>LHZ9] closed up .825 at 48.750.
December coffee [KCZ9>KCZ9] sank 4.80 to 90.60 and cocoa [CCZ9>CCZ9], from the 6/100 Low Volatility List, traded in a 48-point range and ended down 23 at 908.