What The Fed Has In Store For Tuesday
Uncertainty plagued the markets today,
causing many traders to stay on the sidelines ahead of tomorrow’s FOMC meeting.
Last week, many Wall Street insiders were speaking of a possible Fed Interest
rate cut taking place tomorrow. Now the odds of that happening are slowing deteriorating. Traders don’t want to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong
time, so staying on the sidelines is the strategy many are taking. There was
not a lot of volume to really move the market much today.
After coming off of a four-day winning streak,
the Sept S&P 500
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The Sept. Nasdaq 100
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better, losing in the first half of trade, but then putting together a rally in
the end to go green. The NDU2 rose 4.50 to end at 943.50.
Today at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) where
Grain and soybean futures are traded, the government sharply cut production and
supply estimates across the board. This had a huge effect on soybean and corn
prices today. Corn and soybeans both jumped 5% or more in value, while wheat saw
a 3% price increase in the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.
A Midwest drought has caused rather large cutbacks in the government’s first
surveyed crop production estimates of the year.
In the report, corn production is at 8.89 billion bushels, down 7% from a year
ago. This makes for the smallest corn crop since 1995 according to the Wall
Street Journal. The USDA said soybean production will likely be
off 9% from last year’s record crop, at a forecast 2.63 billion bushels.
Wheat prices rose after the government projected production to be off by 300
million bushels from last year’s weak crop.
Wheat for September delivery
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a bushel; December corn
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a bushel; and November soybeans
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$5.53 1/2 a bushel.
The talk of how to overthrow Saddam Hussein continues, and this tends to have
the energy markets trade choppily. At the Nymex Sept. crude oil futures
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oil was trading weak. The declines were linked to weakness in the stock market.
September unleaded gasoline
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a gallon; September heating oil
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to 69.50 cents a gallon; and September natural gas was up .20 cents to $2.97 per
million British thermal units.
In the Metals, December gold
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luster along the way to the close. The positive move to the upside was due to a
softer U.S. dollar
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equity markets. December gold closed at $315.80 a troy ounce down .30. Sept.
silver
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Sept. copper
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