What Housing Did To Aluminum Prices Today
Economic pessimists beat
optimists in today’s markets, as bonds and gold finished higher while equities and the US dollar finished lower.
Equities
US equity markets were mixed as the tech-heavy Nasdaq
was up while the Dow and S&P were lower. Last night’s earnings
announcements from Microsoft and Intel helped push the tech sector up. But
the futures all finished lower, as the Nasdaq
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The S&P
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down 172 to finish at 8228.
Fixed Income
US Treasuries were up today
as some investors are concerned that the economy remains week. The 10-year
note’s contract
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was up 0-11, closing at 112-05; and the five year note
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up 0-035 to close at 112-315.
Metals
Aluminum rose to its highest level in more than
three weeks after a report showed US homebuilding increased almost twice as
much as economists forecast in March. Aluminum
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closing at .6430. Meanwhile, copper
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325.50 on the back of lower US dollar weakness, and
silver
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Energy
Crude oil
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higher than expected, up 100,000 barrels last week, and on the announcement that
oil may be flowing from Iraq in two months time (1.5 million barrels, anyway) The
May contract was down .10 to close at 29.18. Natural gas futuresÂ
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weaker inventory number tomorrow.
Currencies
With below-average trading volume in the currency
markets–due to the various religious holidays, the US dollar fell to a two-week
low against the euro, as some traders speculated the US economy is growing too
slowly to attract foreign investment–to offset the trade deficit. From a
trading point of view, expect the euro to hit the recent highs below 1.11 and
then fall back into the 1.05 – 1.11 range. The USD index
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down .76 today and
finished at 99.29.