Why You’ll Pay Less At The Pump
The lightest volume day of the year in the
markets made it difficult to buoy the broader Index futures. No players
showed up for the game today due to the upcoming three-day weekend. A downgrade to the
semis hurt the Nasdaq 100 futures.
The June Nasdaq 100 futures
(
NDM2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
dropped off by 31.50 or 2.44%. The June S&P 500 futures
(
SPM2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gave
up 15 or 1.37% to finish up at 1082. The
June Dow Jones futures
(
DJM2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) tried to post a come-back like the last two sessions, but failed
and ended losing triple digits. The June Dow lost 126 or 1.23% to end at 10094.
In the energies, oil continued to slip in
price. Last week Russia said it was gradually abandoning the restraint it had agreed to with
OPEC. Russia wants its economy to
benefit from the sharp rise in world crude prices since the agreement was put
in place. With more oil being produced, this will cause oil prices to pull back.
In today’s trade Crude oil for July delivery
(
CLN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell .27 or
1.03% to $25.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). June
heating oil
(
HON2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed down .56 of a cent to 66.48 cents a gallon,
and June unleaded gasoline
(
HUN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) dropped .08
to 79.03
cents a gallon. July natural gas
(
NGN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell .07
or 1.99%
to $3.440 per million BTUs.
In the grain and soybean markets, there were declines ahead of the three-day
weekend. This was for two reasons. One, profit-taking ahead of the long
holiday weekend. Two, forecasts for drier and warmer weather in the Midwest next
week. The weather report was hard on the corn contracts. July corn
(
CN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
lost 3.75 cents or 1.32% to end the week at $2.05 a bushel. Wheat for July
delivery
(
WN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 2.25 cents to $2.69 1/4 a bushel. July soybeans
(
SN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell .50 of a cent to $4.91 a bushel.
In the metals, this week’s darling, June gold futures
(
GCM2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) traded in
a range between $319.30-$322.50 per troy ounce. Profit taking brought gold down
today, closing lower at $320.70 an ounce, loss of 2.10. July silver
(
SIN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was also lower throughout the day trading in a $4.860-$4.915 range. Silver ended
at 4.872, down 4 or .81%. July copper
(
HGN2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was able to show a positive gain, adding
.30 or .41% to close at 73.90 a pound.