An Indication Of Weakness In The S&Ps?
After a somewhat
frightful lower-than-expected
GDP and CPI numbers, stocks were mixed and securities rose. The futures were positive in the early going, then
broke lower, only to regain a positive bias. Choppiness set in before the
close. The Dec. S&P 500 futures
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885.40. On a daily chart, there is divergence between price and the stochastic,
which indicates that SPZ2 is overbought, and we could see weakness in the S&Ps.
The
Treasury’s 4 3/8 % note maturing in August 2012 rose 5/8 point, pushing
down its yield 7 basis points to 3.89%. ( A basis point equals 0.01
percentage point.)
The Dec. 30-year bond
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10-year note
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The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures remain
tenacious, holding the weekly gains so far. The Nasdaq 100 Dec. futures
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At the Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT), soybeans
continued the rally to the upside. The soybean market is trying to divorce
itself from the weak action of the other grains as current prices do not appear
to be high enough to persuade soybeans from producers or to slow the active pace
of exports. For the weekly export sales report, released before the opening,
traders were looking for sales of 1.0-1.25 million tons for soybeans,
75,000-150,000 tons for meal and 7,000-12,000 tons for oil. Jan 2003 soybeans
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rallied higher by 8 1/2 cents and closed at $5.72 1/4 a bushel. Dec. corn
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In the energies, Dec. crude oil
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support still remains intact at the 27.00 level. Crude oil for Dec. delivery
closed at $27.19 a barrel up .39 cents or 1.45%. The positive move for crude
pushed heating oil and gasoline. Dec. unleaded gasoline
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1.94 cents or 2.63% to 75.70 a gallon. Dec. heating oil
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back above the .74 level to close at 74.90 a gallon a gain of 1.44 cents or
1.97%. Dec. natural gas
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In the metals, the gold
market remains inversely correlated to the stock market. The lower GDP number
gave the yellow metal strength today. Tomorrow’s employment numbers could be
equally supportive to gold. Dec. gold
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318 zone. Dec. gold closed at $318.19 a troy ounce up 1.30. Dec. silver
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for Dec. closed up 1.50 cents to $4.50 an ounce. Often we see copper move
inverse of gold and silver, but today was an exception. Dec. copper
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Copper closed at 71.65 a pound up 1.30 or 1.85%.