Dell Exacerbates Prez Stalemate

  • November 10, 2000
  • Marc Dupee

 A revenue warning from Dell infected tech, leaving
stock index futures at week’s end looking like the were wishing they too were
privy to a recount of their numbers similar to the Presidential election recount
occurring in closely contested states. 

Friday’s 164.00 slide to 2894.50 in the NASDAQ 100 futures
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contributed to a cumulative loss of over 500 points on the week. The Nasdaq 100
cash index (which is not effected by monthly price differentials as the futures
are) closed one session shy of a 52-week low.  Naz futures registered on
the Implosion-5 List. 

December S&P futures
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Dow futures
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218.0, respectively, as big cap tech IBM and Hewlett-Packard joined Intel in
hammering losses of 6.5% to 10.5%.

Dell’s warning that sales will slow triggered sell stops
in the computer maker’s stock which drove its share price down 18%.  

Shorter term interest rate futures were bid higher in
reaction to the Presidential stalemate and declining stocks prices as traders
looked for a temporary safe parking place for funds. Ten-year notes
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gained 3/32 to 100 23/32 but the small gains made them look like they are losing
their flight-to-safety luster. 

The Euro FX
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European Central Bank’s recent spate of interventions to support the currency will be ineffectual.
ECZ closed down .00440 at .86280. Declines in the Japanese yen
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and 

British pound
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to 115.75.

Declining equities weighed on COMEX metals. Silver
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was hardest pressed, gapping down to close at a two-year new low, down 4.2 at
472.3 on views that retail sales of jewelry and film will slow. But note that
silver also sets up a Turtle Soup Plus One Buy pattern for Monday. 

Gold remains a Multiple Days Low
Volatility market, closing down 1.4 at 265.5. Be prepared to play this
market either way out of a narrow-range consolidation that has the appearance of
a (Haggerty) Slim Jim on low, a pattern that absent of a significant changes in
open interest and volume, implies a continuation of the downtrend. 

Although copper
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lower, closing down .20 at 83.85, the test of Thursday’s low and close in
Friday’s bar’s upper quartile is constructive. 

Although it is below its own TS+1 buy trigger, March 2001
sugar
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Thursday. Sugar powered to close on the top of its range, up .34 at 9.15.

Also in the softs, coffee remains a potentially explosive Multiple Days Low
Volatility List
 contracts with Dec. coffee
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reading. 

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