How Oil Reacted To Looting In Iraq

The markets were barely moved
today ahead of the long weekend, and it seems as though most “players” made
their trades yesterday.

Equities

Equities eked out another day of gains on below-average volume ahead of the long weekend. The Nasdaq future contract
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was unchanged, closing at 1130.00. The S&P 500 contract
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was
up by 1.30 to finish at 932.00,
and the Dow
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was up by 13.00 to finish at 8590.

Fixed Income

Due to the shortened session, Treasuries had most
of their fun yesterday and were barely changed today The 10-year futures contract
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was
up 005 to close at 118-26; the 30-year
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was up 04 at 121-09; and the five-year note was down 010 at 116-005
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.

Metals

The metals, too, were barely moved in today’s
uneventful session. The July gold contract was up a meager .70 to close at 368.80
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;
silver
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was down by 1.60 to close at 4.647. Copper was down .10
at 76.70
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, and aluminum
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was down .0045 to close at .6515.

Energy

The petroleum market ended higher, although well
below session highs. Traders reacted to mounting concerns that Iraqi oil
production will be significantly crimped as a result of rampant looting. June crude
was up .31 cents to
close at 29.16
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. And natural gas was up by .084 to
close at 6.119
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.

Currencies

Ignoring signals from the European Central Bank
that it is mulling a rate cut in the sessions ahead, the market pushed the
dollar lower today and it appears that the market won’t be happy until the euro/usd
dollar hits 1.20. The USD index
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was down by .58 and
finished at 93.13.