What Pushed The Session
May coffee
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at the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange. Coffee for March delivery closed
higher at 50.400 up 1.700. Yesterday’s session was pushed by speculative short
covering, and that short covering spilled over into today’s trading. May coffee
closed above its 50-day MA. The May contract has an overhead resistance of
50.80-51.60.
Nymex crude oil futures rallied ahead
early, as traders shook off doubts about data that showed an unexpectedly large
decline in inventories. But traders and analysts cautioned that inventories are
well above last year’s levels, meaning the rally may not hold. Crude oil and
petroleum product futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange held on to their
previous gains.
May crude oil
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higher 21.19 up .49. The slump in U.S. oil demand is continuing into February,
marking the biggest sustained decline since the Gulf War, Dow Jones’ Energy
Matters column reports. Heating oil prices moved higher amid signs eastern
Midwest temperatures will remain cold until the weekend. March heating oil
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closed at 54.94 up 1.85. March unleaded gasoline
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to close at 58.36.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, soybean
futures declined in early trade, reflecting investors’ consensus that the
previous session’s rally was overdone. The March soybean
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contract dropped 1.00 to 444.000.
Grains edged higher. Wheat and corn both gained some psychological support from
President Bush’s trip to China, a prime U.S. export target. But the gains could
not hold, with investors watching for signs of more activity on the export
front. March wheat
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April gold
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pressure, driving prices to 11-day lows. Then gold reversed and ended up closing
higher at 293.500 up .90. March silver
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the opening, but light short covering and a slightly firmer euro against the
dollar helped fuel its rally to a positive close. March copper
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closed higher at 71.45 up .55.
The March Dow futures
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moved lower at the opening and then rallied past the 10,000 market to the
session highs. Then the market turned to touch its 9950 intraday support, but
broke through and dropped like a falling knife to close lower by 142.000 to
9825. The March S&P 500 futures
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