A Lesson In Interpreting Today’s Action
Today the S&P 500 dropped to levels that have
not been seen since 1997 and had the worst fall in ten months. Between the
Dow, Nasdaq and the S&P 500, the S&P 500 is the worst performing index. Throughout the day in the intraday chart it appeared that the
September S&P
500
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1-2-3 bottom, but failed and ended up breaking below its 2.0 lower volatility band to close at 919.50, down 34.50. This is a lesson on how an up pattern, upon failing, can be interpreted as a sign the market will go lower.
The Nasdaq 100 futures for September
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is trading at the 1997 levels. The area of 1,000 seemed like sound support, but that
level has now been violated.
A drop in crude oil and gasoline inventories
pushed energy futures higher today. Crude oil for August
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at $26.75 at barrel up .66 or 2.53%. August heating oil
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1.60 or 2.39% to 68.65 a gallon; August unleaded gasoline
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to 78.90 and August natural gas
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In the grains and beans, cooler, rainier weather
in the Midwest caused corn futures to fall in price. Yesterday, corn rose in
response to forecasts for hotter weather ahead in the corn belt. December
corn
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November soybeans SX2|SX2] lost 1.50 of cent to $5.14 1/2 a bushel and
September wheat
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Very often when the equity markets are dropping off, gold futures will have a
tendency to rise. Today that’s what traders were looking for in gold, but what
traders got was a market that was tied to a $314.70-$316.40 range through early
trading, and by the end of trading, August gold
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to close at $315.10 an ounce, down 1.39. September silver
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failed to deliver on a weaker equity market. September silver lost .30 cents to
close at 5.055. September copper
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pound.