Cocoa Moves Into The Crosshairs
Cocoa gapped open and kept on going after eyewitnesses in the world’s largest
producing nation, the Ivory Coast, reported gunshots and tank movements in the
capital Abidjan. Cocoa was poised for a larger-than-normal move as the September
contract
(
CCU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) had been on the
Multiple Days Low
Volatility List
for the past three days, a strong indication of an impending move. Cocoa
finished up 52 at 934.Â
Also in the softs,
coffee
(
KCU0 |
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News |
PowerRating) rebounded modestly after hitting its lowest level of the year
on Wednesday following favorable crop and weather forecasts. Coffee logged an
inside day on its lows, rising 1.45 to 89.50, but remains an Implosion-5
market and one to watch for further downside.
Lewis Borsellino captured the mood in S&Ps trading Thursday at the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, commenting in his Borsellino’s
S&Ps PM that a “common phrase heard in the pit this morning was SOLD, as locals were hitting
bids.” In another prescient observation, Lewis said “One of the keys
to this market continues to be GE and the entire financial sector. If they keep
trading lower, I think the SPU will follow before finding support between
1465.60 and 1467.20, where the 30, 50 and 100 day moving averages reside.”Â
The September S&Ps
(
SPU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded down to a low of 1468.50 before
settling 22.30 lower at 1476.30.
Intel and Oracle’s more than 4-point decline did the most damage to NASDAQ 100 futures
(
NDU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
although Qualcomm was the only major Nasdaq 100-component to stem the indices’
fall. The September contract closed 151.00 lower at 3862.50. Dow futures
(
DJU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
were also beat up by declines in Intel but IBM and JP Morgan exacerbated the Dow
futures downward slide, such that the September contract closed at a new 10-day
low, down 100-even at 10,530.0.
In currency trading, the
Japanese yen
(
JYU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)Â continued moving briskly out of a diamond bottom
(reversal) formation after a Bank of Japan official suggested the central bank
would soon raise interest rates off near-zero-yield levels. Higher interest rates in Japan would attract dollars as yen-denominated assets
became more valuable. The yen rallied .0101 to close at .9730. Also in
currencies, September dollar index futures
(
DXU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied .38 to close at
107.40 while the euroFX
(
ECU0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) slipped .00730 to .94290.
Â
Energy futures soared back to record levels one day after OPEC announced they
would raise production by 700,000 barrels a day. The market views the production
rise as insufficient to fulfill demand and recent price action in oil and its
products demonstrates the extremely bullish sentiment. August crude
(
CLQ0 |
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News |
PowerRating)
from the Momentum-5
List rallied .82 to 32.19. Unleaded gas
(
HUQ0 |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating), from the Pullback From Highs List
went out on its highs and at a new contract record, adding .0351 to 1.0270.
Heating oil
(
HOQ0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) spurted in its third vertical bar–like crude, out of a
1-2-3-4 pullback setup–to add .0252 to .8094. Rising temperatures sparked
demand for
natural gas
(
NGQ0 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), another hot market trading at a four-year high,
igniting a rally that left the August contract .121 higher at 4.490.
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