Two Factors That Helped Treasuries Today
Treasuries continued to move
higher today while equities took a bit of a breather. And the US dollar war
mixed while gold was lower.
Equities
The equity markets were lower today on the back
of profit taking. Homebuilders were the big equity winners today after mortgage
refinancing applications jumped last week. The Nasdaq index futures contract
(
NDM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was down by 13.00 to close at 1139.50. The S&P 500 contract
(
SPM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was
down 5.20 to finish at 929.50,
and the Dow
(
DJM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was down 22 to
finish at 8548.
Fixed Income
Treasuries continued their move higher in
response to two factors: first the yesterday’s Fed statement that said it would
target growth and inflation/deflation separately. And second, the Treasury’s
five year note auction today went better than expected, as the $18 billion worth
of notes were auctioned at their lowest yield on record, 2.680 % The 10 year
futures contract
(
TYM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was up 235 to close at 116-145; the 30 year
(
USM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was up 1-06 to close at 115-28; and the five year note finished
up 155 to close at 114-245
(
FVM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Metals
The industrial metals were higher today as
aluminum and copper broke above previous range ceilings on currency moves and
short-covering. Aluminum
(
ALK03 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was up by .0085 to .6495 in the absence
of forward hedging by producers, dragging copper higher by 1.10 to close at
73.50
(
HGK03 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Gold finished lower by .6 on the back of today’s
stronger dollar and yesterday’s inflation friendly remarks by the Fed. Gold June
was down .6 to finish at 342.20
(
GCM3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), and silver
(
SIK3 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was down by
5.8 to finish at 4.7420.
Energy
Crude was up today on the back of a surprising
decline in US inventories by 800,000 barrels to 287.2 million barrels; the
market was anticipating a gain of 2.2 million barrels. June crude was up .51 to
close at 26.23
(
CL03M |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Natural gas futures were higher in sympathy,
trading up .092 to close at 5.660.
(
NG03M |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).
Currencies
The big story today was in the euro vs. yen cross
currency pair, as the European currency fell by 1.70 percent. The move was based
on weak German unemployment (10.7%) and declining factory orders, ahead of the
European Central Bank meeting tomorrow. The USD index
(
DX03H |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was up
by .18 and
finished at 95.76.