What Bush Said That Spooked Traders
Today was the first day that we focused on
the Dec. contract for the broader future indexes. They were down. One of the major reasons for
the decline was Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan saying that we are not out
of the woods yet and that certain depressing factors are still straining the US economy. The rally for the S&P 500 that looked like it may be
taking shape was broken and the Dec. S&P 500
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50-day moving average (903.50) to close at 889.50, a loss of 16.80 or 1.85%.
The Dec. Nasdaq 100
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help from the techs today, the semi
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particular. Before trading commenced, Lehman Brothers cut the 2003 chip
equipment revenue growth forecast to 10% from roughly 27%. NDU2 dropped 2.53% or
24.00 to end at 923.
In today’s energy trading, traders focused their
attention on President Bush presenting his case against Iraq to the United
Nations. When the President finished, crude oil for Oct.
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that didn’t help
oil rebound as CLV2 closed at $28.85 a barrel, down 92.Â
The US is
pressing OPEC to increase oil production when it meets next week, to prevent potential shortages in the event
there is conflict in the Middle
East. OPEC’s current position is that there is a substantial inventory of oil. Crude oil set the tone for other energies,
with both Oct. heating oil
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barrel and HOV2 dropped 2.29 cent or 2.91% to 76.67 a gallon.
Today at the Chicago Board of Trade, water was
thrown on the drought-driven rally in the grains and soybean markets. This
morning the USDA crop production report stated that corn production was down slightly
from last month. This however did not prevent profit takers from stepping in to
take some money off of the table. December corn
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7 1/4 cents or 2.50% to $2.83 1/4 a bushel. Nov. soybeans
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dropped 1.45% on news that Soybean production is up 1% from last month.
SX2 closed at $5.78 1/4 a bushel, down 8.50 cents. Dec wheat
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pulled back to $4.06 a bushel down 6 1/4 cent or 1.52%.
In precious metals, some nervous traders became
interested in gold, pushing the Dec. contract higher by $2.20. Dec. gold
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followed gold’s lead and rallied up 1.03% or 4.70 cents to $4.608 an ounce.
Dec. copper
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