Four Reasons Oil Is Lower
Ignoring today’s weak
March economic data, the markets pushed stocks and the US dollar
higher on the back of the swift overnight advances made by coalition forces on
their march toward Baghdad. Investors have decided to disregard last month’s
economic data due to the significant war/fear premium embedded into these
numbers. In fact, the chairman of the ISM survey (which was released yesterday
and was abysmal) assigned a high probability of a bounce in the survey’s value
for April.
Equities
Once again, technology stocks led the charge on
the upside in equities and the Nasdaq futures
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the S&P
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up 202 to finish at 8150.
Fixed Income
Treasuries weren’t given a respite after the weak
March data and traded lower all day. The 10 year contract
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was down 0-245, closing at 114-030; the 30 year
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closing at 111-18 and the five year note finished
down 0-1555 to close at 113-010
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Metals
All of the metals were lower today. Gold was
lower for a second day, falling 4.7 to finish at 334.30
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fell 3.5 to finish at 4.402. The base metals didn’t rise with equities today, as
these markets seem a little less optimistic about any sustained economic
recovery in the industrial sector. Copper was down .60 to finish at 71.85
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Energy
A confluence of factors–including progress by
the coalition in Iraq, higher-than-expected US oil reserves, renewed oil
shipments out of Venezuela and better news about civil unrest in Nigeria–all
pushed the energy markets lower today. Crude futures were down 1.22 to close at
28.56
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gas was down .060, closing at 5.065
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Currencies
With the exception of the Canadian dollar, the US
dollar gained against the other major currencies. For the day, the USD index
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up .97 and
finished at 100.55.