Friday’s Setups

Energy prices appear on track to continue imploding. December crude oil
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,

heating oil

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, and unleaded gasoline
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were on the
Implosion-5 List
and collapsed to contract lows. Unleaded gasoline has
collapsed .0700 from “the next upside test comes at .6090 to .6110”
area identified in October 19th’s Futures
Setups
. OPEC says it will cut production by a million barrels a day but the
cartel has a reputation for “cheating,” or producing more than their
quota, thereby increasing supply (and decreasing prices). Non-OPEC nations have
said they will not comply with requests to trim output and Russia, one of
the world’s largest producer, plans to expand
output. 

Meanwhile, demand is waning as people stay out of stores,
hotels, airplanes, and cars. Four-star hotels in Downtown Boston can be had for
$50 and in some cases, as a recent Boston hotel experience validates, a $50
booking was the only booking for an entire floor of 20 rooms. Tenured maids who
haven’t been let go have been reduced to three days of work a week. 

Tomorrow’s employment report will likely show a more
complete picture of the deteriorating statistics we have been getting in weekly
jobless claims. A rising number of jobless will curb energy demand even
more. A global economic slowdown will reduce OPEC income and enhance the
temptation to “cheat.” 

Oil was $10 a barrel as recently as 1998. In the markets,
anything can happen. Oil and related products contracts are short-term oversold,
down six straight days, but have an early Elliot wave formation that implies we
could be just beginning wave three down of a five wave pattern. Consider
entering on pullbacks from lows setups. 

It is an ominous sign
that the


Japanese yen

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was unable to close the 10/22 gap — the neckline
of a head-and-shoulders top. Although this contract managed to rally more than
forecast in last night’s report, the pattern in the yen remains heavy and
appears to be commensurate with its negative fundamentals. The yen has gotten
some flight-to-safety buying of its currency, buying which could crop up again, but buying that likely would only endure in the short-term. But remember that the Sept. 20 “head” (of the H&S top
pattern) was a window-dressing buy, where money was repatriated to
make good on new accounting rules (upside down Japanese assets had to be
marked-to-market for the first time, meaning paid for in yen). That’s over.
Interest rates are at zero (.15%), exports are imploding, and domestic
tightfistedness continues to support deflation. Are you in the market for a VCR
or Toyota? Neither are the Japanese. Demand in the world’s second largest economy is sagging on several fronts. This market remains a Pullback
From Lows
sell setup. 

Given
December

copper’s

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 recent
signs
of potential, nascent momentum, the

Turtle Soup Plus One Buy
setup looks encouraging above its 62.08
trigger. 

November soybeans
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 and
soy meal
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logged outside expansion bars. They made new
New 10-Day Highs
, making them eligible for Off The Blocks
setups. Long. 





Contract

Symbol
Setup
Direction

Trigger
Energies
 

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,
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,
and
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 Implosive
fundamentals 
Down

On
Pullbacks from Lows
Japanese yen

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H&S
top, Pullback from lows
 Down
Below
.8200 pivot
Copper  
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Turtle Soup Plus One Buy
 
 
Up
  
62.08
Soybeans 

 
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Outside expansion bars,
New 10-Day Highs


Up 

 
Off The Blocks


Soy meal  
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Outside expansion bars,
New 10-Day Highs
 
Up

  
Off The Blocks