Gas Blows Off The Roof
Cold weather in the major heating fuel consuming regions
catapulted natural gas
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record high close, up .318, or 5.58%, to 6.016. Traders expressed worry that low
levels of the heating fuel could drop even further with a harsh winter and cause
price-hiking shortages.Â
Tuesday’s new high comes
one day before the weekly American Gas Association report on “injections
into storage,” a weekly figure from the industry group. Technically, nat
gas leads the Momentum-5
List, registered on the
New 10-Day Highs List, and has three arrows glowing uptrend from the
Futures
Trend Matrix.Â
OPEC jawboning worked to
bolster nat gas and other energy contracts. Saudi
Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi encouraged longs with comments such as, “I
believe the world economy can withstand {$30 a barrel} oil.” Heating
oil and crude oil, also members of the Momentum-5
List, tacked on sizeable gains. HOZ0 added .0378 to 1.0541, mimicking the
theme of lower heating fuel stocks ahead of a cold front. Dec. crude rallied .40
to 34.87.
Steady but restrained retail sales figures out from the
Commerce Department helped bring buyers back into equities, spurring a huge
rally in tech futures
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Projections that the world’s largest wireless firm would grow profits next near
amid rising subscribership also inspired buyers. Many issues opened more than 5%
higher. The two biggest point-gainers on the day were both NASDAQ 100 stocks: i2
Technologies
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and 31 1/16 higher, respectively.
Three up signals from the
Market
Bias Indicators Page, an unusually high and critical-mass number, suggested
the downside in the Nasdaq 100 could be overdone (the Naz Comp hit a 52-week
low Monday) and that stocks index futures could rally Tuesday. The indexes
traded within a range after their initial gap-up opening, but finally broke out
after a report that the injunction sought by the Gore team to extend the
deadline for the completion of the presidential vote recount beyond 5 PM ET
Tuesday had been denied by a Florida judge.
Interest rate futures rallied ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC
meeting on interest rates. T-bonds
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that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged but could take a more neutral policy tone in their forecast of future inflation risk, clawing back
from a negative start to close 10/32 higher at 99 31/32.
December dollar index futures
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US stocks while Dec. euro FX futures
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and British pounds
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Soybean meal
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a (Cooper) 1-2-3-4 Pullback From Highs List
setup to close up 2.1 at 169.8.
Copper
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higher after hitting a four-month low Monday and made progress above its Turtle Soup Plus One Buy
trigger, closing .65 higher at 82.75.
Also in the metals, silver
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declined to a multi-year low, but made progress in the second half of the
session to leave a bottoming “tail” and end .7 higher at 469.5.