What Inspired Traders Today
Treasury prices gave in to many pressures Wednesday as stock prices advanced, the
government released strong manufacturing data and corporate-bond issuance hit
the market.
By the end of trading, the benchmark 10-year Treasury Note for June
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to the price, rose to 5.024%. The June 30-year Treasury sank .56 to 101.344
sending its yield up to 5.525%.
Blue chips led the charge Wednesday as
investors were inspired by yet another batch of encouraging economic data. The March Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
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to move higher in the early session, but rebounded to the lower side of the day.
By 2:00 PM EST the March Dow futures put in the bottom of the day and then
reversed to begin an intraday rally. The R1 Pivot was penetrated to the upside,
and the DJH2 closed at 10565.000 up 105.000.
The March Nasdaq 100 futures
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closed higher for the fourth session in a row. The NDH2 ended at 1512.500 up
7.500, while the March S&P 500 futures
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its high, up 13.400 to 1162.500.
Crude oil figures from the Department of
Energy (DOE) showed an increase in crude stocks of 4.3 million barrels,
substantially larger than the 1.238-million-barrel increase reported by the
American Petroleum Institute (API) late Tuesday. The DOE report showed total
crude stocks at 320.5 million barrels, 40.1 million barrels higher than a year
ago. The API reported a total of 319.946 million barrels, up 44.147 million
barrels from a year ago. The DOE also reported draw downs in distillate and
gasoline stocks of 1.9 million barrels, while the API reported a fall of 1.748
million barrels.
Additional news that added to the bearish
sentiment Wednesday, was that the International Energy Agency reported that
still Russia hasn’t yet committed to cut its exports in line with its agreement
with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce them by
150,000 barrels a day.
Gasoline and crude-oil futures lost some of their
gains on the heels of Tuesday’s sharp rally in reaction to bearish supply data.
The April crude-oil futures contract
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a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange; April heating oil
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lost .21 to end at 59.93; April unleaded gasoline
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up 0.93 cents to 74.03.
May Soybean futures
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Wednesday on the Chicago Board of Trade, after the previous session’s strong
gains. Investors were taking a wait-and-see attitude on export prospects after
driving prices to their highest level since mid-January on Tuesday. Soybeans for
May delivery dropped 3.25 to end at 454.000. Wheat found support from concerns
about the condition of the U.S. winter-wheat crop. Wheat for May
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delivery rose .500 to $282.500 a bushel; May corn
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to $2.08 a bushel.
Precious metals were trading mixed, with more
long liquidation by funds pressing gold prices lower, taking silver with it.
April gold
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having rebounded from a $292.60 low. May silver
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of $4.495 and bounced to 452.500 an ounce, 3.00 lower from Tuesday. May
copper [HGK2|HGK2] gained .900 to 74.95.