Consumer Confidence Up…Financials Down

The broader market futures ended the session in the
green. The S&P 500 index
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climbed 6.30. The Nasdaq 100 index
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tacked on a portion of what it lost in yesterday’s session, making up
29.50, and the Dow Industrials
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closed above 10K, higher by
57.

Looking at the grains, Wheat
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gained 1-2. Corn
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ended down 0-6 to close at 211-4, and Soybeans
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went into the weekend unchanged. Oats
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climbed 4-6 to close
higher at 190-0.

Meats did pretty well on this triple
witching Friday, all ended up for the session. Live Cattle
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climbed
1.45 to end the session at 69.87. Feeder Cattle
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tacked on
1.49,
closing at 84.57. Pork Bellies
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shot up 2.99, and Lean Hogs
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gained 1.60.

Precious metals enjoyed the volatility
in the session, with Platinum
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tacking on 14.2 to close at 471.3.
Gold
and Silver did well. Gold
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tacked on 1.8 to end the week at 278.3, and

Silver

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scooted higher .072.

Softs ended the session mixed, with
Cotton #2

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ending the week up .32 at 36.23. Orange Juice
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slid .40, ending the session at 93.50, and Coffee
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was the
worst-performing soft, closing at 46.65, down 2.95. Sugar #11
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ended the
session up fractionally .05 at 7.12.

Turning our attention to energies, all
of them ended the week up. Crude Oil
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tacked on .34, Unleaded
Gasoline

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climbed .0083, Heating Oil
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rose
.0035, and
Natural Gas

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closed at 2.895, up .186.

Financials were down across the board
due to the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index which came in at
88.8 in December, up from 83.9 a month ago. The 30-Year T-Bond
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closed at 101-07, down 0-06, with the 10-Year Note
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off by 0-100.

The U.S. dollar index
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showed some strength in the session plowing higher 1.29, while the other
currencies ended the session in the red. The British pound
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was off
by .0104, the Japanese Yen
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slid .0068, and the Swiss Franc
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lost .0088.