Here’s Why Natural Gas Was Significantly Lower.

Equities rallied again today,
while Treasuries followed suit. 

Equity

US stocks rose for a third consecutive day, led
by pharmaceutical, electric utility and computer-related shares.

The soft drink and communications
equipment indexes were also among the day’s top performers. Thrifts and mortgage
stocks led declines after Treasury Secretary John Snow said that the top two
U.S. mortgage purchasers needed more oversight after the ouster of three
high-ranking executives formally employed by one of the government sponsored
enterprises. Multi-line insurance shares lost traction after the world’s biggest
insurer registered with U.S. regulators to sell $5.1 billion of securities.
Tobacco shares fell after a major U.S. tobacco company lost a bid to appeal a
$10.1 billion verdict directly to the Illinois Supreme Court. Oil and
gas—related shares also waned on a decline in oil prices.
 
The Nasdaq future
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was up 4.50 to close at 1233.00. The S&P 500 contract
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was
up 3.00 to finish at 1000.00,
and the Dow
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was down 18 to finish at 9212.

Fixed Income

U.S. Treasuries rose as the Department of Labor reported a 120K
jump in continued jobless claims to 3.8 million for the week ended May 31 — a
20-year high. Separately, initial claims fell 17K last week to 430K, but
remained within a range consistent with weak labor markets.

expected. The 10 year futures contract
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was
up -60 to close at 119-250; the 30 year
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was up -12 at 121-24; and the five year note was up -60 at 116-215
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.

Metals

July gold
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was down 1.20 to close at
353.30. Silver
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was up .005 at 4.505. Copper was up .80 at 76.35
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,
and aluminum
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was up .0045 to close at .6530.

Energy

July crude
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was down .85 to close at
31.51 And, natural gas suffered a huge wash out after the overly-long market was
caught off guard by the higher than expected inventory data .6594 to
close at 5.06
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.

Currencies

The dollar was lower today. The USD index
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was
down by .13 and
finished at 93.30.