Getting Pumped For September

A market starts lower and
closes higher. This is the nature of a market that is rising. September crude oil
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has finished higher in 10 of the past 14 days since it July 17 low of 24.77. But
yesterday’s tepid gain of .17 concealed pent-up momentum in this contract. Today
the contract followed through after appearing on the
Momentum-5
List
for yesterday’s market and rallied to a new six-week high, up .20 at
27.94 after spiking to its multi-week record at 28.40.

Unleaded gasoline
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also showed nascent signs of a potential momentum pulse yesterday by registering
on the

New 10-Day Highs List
and itself leapt to a new six-week high. Gasoline
demand is running above predictions for the season. Traders are also pumping up
prices in anticipation of OPEC’s promise to cut its output by one million
barrels a day beginning in September.

Heating oil
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,
a market that rallies in anticipation of cold winters, jumped the most on a
percentage basis of these three, rallying .0087 to .7343 and also very possibly
closed for the first day above the neckline of a head-and-shoulders bottom
pattern

Stock index futures closed narrowly mixed in another day
of slow summer trade. Volume on the Nasdaq Composite yesterday was its slowest
of the year. Downgrades in the semis were countered to some degree by a
stronger-than-expected productivity report.

Euro FX futures
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,

Swiss francs

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and

British pound
s
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closed down after reports showed that German
unemployment rose while the country’s industrial production fell. Germany is the
largest economy in the 12-currency euro bloc. Notice how Off The Blocks
entries kept you out of long entries in the EC and SF Momentum
markets. The EC fell .00470 to .87630, the SF slipped .0028 to .5825, and the BP
dipped .0028 to 1.4152.

As mentioned in yesterday’s Futures Market Recap,
November soybeans
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continued to find support at the 50%
retracement of their early-summer rally. Yesterday’s late rally into the close
in the bean complex resulted in a pop-up opening and a potential new gap window
of support below 497. Beans added 9.

Pork bellies
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flopped as no one was
willing to buy at new contract highs. Basis August closed down 3.000, their
daily limit, at 96.850.