Courts Bash Bush, Mad Cows Startle Pigs
The Florida Supreme Court overturned a circuit court’s
ruling and ordered that all ballots in closely contested counties be
hand-counted. The ruling was a legal setback for the Bush presidential campaign
and cast into doubt a seeming Republican victory.Â
Stock index futures plummeted in the final minutes of
trading: the S&Ps
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Nasdaq 100 futures
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announcement from the Tallahassee courthouse footsteps. Stock index futures
trade until 4:15 PM ET, 15 minutes longer than equities.Â
Three down indicators from the
Market
Bias Indicators Page were about the only clue that stock index futures
could move lower at some point in the day. Dow and Naz 100 index futures gapped
powerfully out of the gate after Intel rose, despite issuing a negative earnings
warning. A favorably interpreted jobs report also pushed the NDH1 up as much as
7% and prompted strong gains in Dow and S&P futures. In the aftermath of the
dramatic news, March Naz futures closed 102.50 higher at 2825.00, S&Ps
closed 3.5 higher at 1360.00, and Dow futures ended down 73.0 at 10,650.
Declining consumption of beef in Europe due to the mad cow
disease scare across the continent had pork belly traders in Chicago thinking
Europeans would substitute pork for beef and curb exports to the US of Danish
pork products such as hams. Fewer imports to the US of pork products would
increase demand for domestic product. February pork bellies
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their daily limit, up 3.00 to 69.000 to their highest level since August.Â
Today’s jobs report showed unemployment increasing
slightly more than forecast, moving from a 30-year low of 3.9% to 4%. Although
the weakening economic development would enhance the chance for the Fed to ease
short-term interest rates from a nine-year high of 6.5%, the up-tick in the
wages component of the report hints at wage inflation and reduces the likelihood
off an aggressive loosening such as a 50 basis-point rate cut by the central
bank. Federal Funds futures, the best predictor of the Fed’s probable action,
fell slightly. T-bonds
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10-year notes
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Crude oil
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the United Nations agreed on a price for the sanctioned nation’s crude oil and
paved the way for a continuation of Iraqi exports. Forecasts for warmer weather,
particularly in the Northeast, also hit heating oil, which led the way lower for
crude and unleaded gasoline contracts. Crude, heating oil, and unleaded gasoline
closed down between 3.1% to 4.9%.Â
Japanese yen
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setup, finishing down .0059 at .8996.
Coffee
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Implosion-5 List,
tumbled to fresh seven-year lows after Indonesia, one of the world’s top
producers, said it would pull out of a coffee retention program after expressing
doubts that Vietnam would adhere to any agreement to keep coffee off the world
market. Coffee has been indicating its strong directional bias by registering
multiple down signals on the
Futures
Trend Matrix. The March contract closed 2.75 lower at 68.00.
Corn
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trigger for a gain of 4 to 218 3/4.