Fueling Crude
Crude oil and products futures at the New York
Mercantile Exchange were higher today, fueled by word of refinery cuts and
rumors of producer discontent.
March crude futures
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cents to $18.98 a barrel, March heating oil futures
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higher by 15 points to 51.81 cents a gallon, and March gasoline futures
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were up .73 cents to 55.75 cents a gallon.
Sentiment also received a boost after the Iranian
Oil Minister said that his country, an OPEC member of some standing, wished to
address output cuts at the upcoming meeting in March as they are not pleased
with current prices.
A lackluster outlook for U.S. export sales
sent corn and wheat futures lower on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat
slipped on low demand. Wheat for March
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low and fell below its S2 pivot (295.33) to close at 295.23, down 2.75. March
corn
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fell below its S2 pivot (210.08). March oats
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$1.93 a bushel, and March soybeans fell well below their S2 pivot point
(441.50). March soybeans closed down 6.500 to 439.00 a bushel.
With the exception of copper, precious metals
traded lower in today’s session. When February gold
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today, it immediately fell below its Friday close and then penetrated its S1and
S2 pivot points to end at 281.80, down 1.6. March silver
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broke below a series of significant technical moving average levels last week
and today touched its 50-day EMA to close lower by .057 to 4.288. March copper
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was the only bright spot. March copper has been trading in a flag pattern,
and we are looking for a break of 71 to the upside. April platinum
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dropped $4.90 to $475.40 an ounce. April platinum is trending just above its
10-day EMA.
Stocks were weak today as investors continue to
worry about the earnings outlook for companies. The March S&P 500 futures
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fell below its S1 pivot (1123.73) to close down 7.80 to 1121.30. The March Dow
futures
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session at 9705.00, and the March Nasdaq futures
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its S2 pivot (1510.17) to end at 1506.50, down 48.00.