What Could Move The Grains

A very volatile day on Wall Street
had
the Nasdaq 100 trading below the September 2001 lows at 1014.75. Then, when
Microsoft

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came out said that they would not pre-announce a shortfall in
earnings (which everyone expected), it sparked a huge rally in the beaten-down
techs. The September Nasdaq 100 was falling by midday, then rallied to end the
session at 1064 up 22.50 or 2.16%.

The September S&P 500 futures
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made an intraday low 995.20. Then, at the mid-point of the session a rally was
sparked and SPU2 rallied towards the key 1000 resistance level.

The September dollar
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dropped
like a falling knife all last week to set up a possible Turtle Soup Plus One buy
setup. Upon today’s opening it looked like the dollar would continue lower
as it fell below key support at 108 to 107.79. Then as the broader equity
markets began a mid-day rally, the dollar started a rally of its
own, closing positive at 108.70 up .02. The dollar has been at a 26-month low
against the euro
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and a seven-month low against the Japanese yen
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.

‘Tis the season! Now
it’s summertime in the grain
markets, and this is when markets could begin to move in either direction based
on just a comment from a market guru or a weather report. Today the talk of a
Midwest drought sent the grain and soybean futures on a rally. December corn
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rose very strongly at the outset of the trading
session, rallying more than 4% as very hot weather in the Midwest threatens the
late-planted crop. Dec. corn rose 8 3/4 cents to $2.35 a bushel. September
wheat

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rose more than 1.61%, up 4.75 cents to $3.00 a
bushel. Corn was helped by wheat’s rally. July soybeans
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rallied strongly to $5.05 1/2 a bushel up 10.50 cents or 2.12%. Some traders
find soybeans less vulnerable to drought at this point.

In the energies, crude oil set the tone early
on as it rallied right out of the gate in early trade. August crude oil
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gained .68 or 2.63% to close at $26.50 a barrel. Heating oil for
August

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rallied up 1.83 cent or 2.79% to 64.70 cents a gallon.

August
unleaded gasoline

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gained 2.14 cents or 2.81% to 78.29
cents a gallon; and Natural gas for August
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rose 5.95% or .19
cents to 3.49.

With continued weakness in the U.S. dollar,

August gold futures

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rallied to 11-day highs of $327.60 per
ounce. Then the equity markets turned positive and gold quickly turned negative
and closed down .70 to $324.69. July silver
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broke ranks with
gold and was positive in the closing hours of trade, adding .1 of a cent to close
at $4.866 an ounce. July copper
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lost .25 to close at 74.04 a
pound.