Cocoa Crumbles To Low
Cocoa closed at its lowest December reading ever,
extending a week-long slide that came after the futures were unable to sustain a
break above 840. A coalition of West African leaders is in the Ivory Coast, the
world’s largest producer of cocoa, defusing a politically tense situation, and a
recent report on “grindings” of cocoa suggests demand will be in line
with expectations. These bearish fundamentals come just weeks before the harvest
in Ivory Coast kicks into high gear, exacerbating a technically weak market. The
December contract
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Orange juice gapped lower and plummeted to contract lows,
following through on Friday’s big down-expansion bar. Forecasts are for a bumper
year that will exceed the crop record set in the 1997-1998 year. November orange
juice
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Stock index futures provided traders with plenty of
action, following through on Friday’s late-session upside momentum (and making
good on five up signals from the
Market
Bias Indicators Page) before sinking to negative finishes on weakness in big-cap techs. Cisco
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on the S&Ps and Nasdaq 100 futures. Early and persistent weakness in
Microsoft
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Dow futures
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closed 7.50 lower at 1461.00,
NASDAQ 100 futures
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Dow futures
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T-bonds
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decoupled slightly from stock indexes as players did some safe-haven buying, a
similar reaction to what occurred early Friday with Intel’s slide. December bonds
closed 6/32 higher at 98 11/32 and 10-years closed 2/32 higher at 99 30/32.
Currency traders showed doubt about the efficacy of the G-7’s
intervention in currency markets to support a weak euro Friday. Dollar index
futures
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to 113.84, and the euro FX
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Friday to a .00630 lower finish at .87630. Canadian dollars
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PowerRating)Turtle Soup Plus One Buy
setup, adding .0008 to .6737.
Energy prices moved sharply lower again Monday morning in response to
President Clinton’s release of 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve last week. Although there was a great deal of uncertainty in the
energy markets,
there were technical signs of an impending drop. Unleaded gasoline left a Turtle
Soup Plus One setup three days ago and continued following through to the
downside Monday for a close .0132 lower at .8975. Heating oil registered on the New 10-Day Low List
Monday,
hinting of its downside momentum and closed .0151 lower at .9414. Crude oil
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Natural gas decoupled from the energy sector, reacting to
both freezing conditions across the Midwest and blistering heat in the
Southwest. The November contract rallied throughout the session for a .149 gain
to 5.415, but is still below the trigger of a (Cooper)
1-2-3-4 Pullback From Highs
setup.Â
Lean hogs are following through after a very bullish four-day
run. The contract is the leading contract on Momentum-5
List, which highlights this recent strength.