Bellies Up On Japan Ban

Marc Dupee will be out of the
office until April 9. In his absence this column is being written by
TradersWire’s Duke Heberlein.

May pork bellies
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were up sharply today
on news that Japan has placed a ban on all pork from European Union countries.
The EU is the major supplier of pork to the island nation and according to
estimates coming out of the U.K, the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic will worsen
in the coming weeks and months. Bellies gapped higher on the open and never
looked back, closing on its contract high, up 3.00 at 94.475. April lean hogs
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moved upward as well, gaining 1.20 to close at 65.35. March feeder
cattle

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and April live cattle
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 continued
to be sold, falling .275 and .875 in their respective contracts.

Stock index futures ended the week in a positive fashion,
with the Nasdaq 100 futures
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adding 10.00 to end at 1730. Dow
futures

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gained 167 to 9595 and the S&P futures contract
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gained 34.50 to end the day at 1154.

Switching places with the index futures, T-bonds
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reversed, losing ^24 to drop to 106^04, and 10-year notes
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 slid ^15 to 106^23.

In the grains, May wheat
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rebounded slightly from what many analysts had called an oversold condition,
gaining 2 1/4 to 262 1/4. Corn
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behaved in a similar
fashion, up 1 3/4 at 207. Soybeans
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 completed the triad of
oversold grains rebounding, closing at up 2 1/4 to 436 1/2. Soymeal
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added .90 to its contract price, finishing the day 150.10 and soybean
oil

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dropped 0.26 to 15.65.

April crude oil
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rose amid reports of Mexico’s planned cut in oil exports, mirroring
the projected cuts in production by OPEC. CLK1 closed .76 to the positive at
27.30. Heating oil
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 added .0315 to end at .7196, unleaded
gasoline

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was up .015 to .9136 and natural gas
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made it a clean sweep into green territory, closing the session up .068 at 5.33.

Metals enjoyed a positive day as well, with April gold
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gaining .30 to 261.70 and silver
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.80 higher at 436.30.

In the softs, cocoa
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continued its
thrust higher, up 12 to 1036 while May cotton
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 triggered
a
Turtle Soup
Plus One Buy
setup, ending at 48.06, up .92. Coffee
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continued to trade in a choppy fashion, losing .10 to end up at 60.10. May sugar
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bounced slightly after probing to a new contract low, finishing the
day .09 to the downside at 8.37, and orange juice
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continues
to head lower, down 1.55 to 74.65.

Concluding with the currency markets, June dollar
index futures

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gave back some of their recent gains out of a Turtle
Soup Plus One Sell
falling .36 to 116.12, while the rest of the lot managed
to post positive closes. Swiss francs
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ended at .5827, gaining
.0005, the Japanese yen
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was up .0047 at .8225, euro FX
futures

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were up .00120 at .88960, and the British pound
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headed into the weekend at 1.4248, up .0064.