Major Dis

Stock index futures traders dismissed analysts’ concerns
about upcoming profits from tech major Hewlett-Packard
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due to slow server sales, focusing instead on
the positive in such names as Intel
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to take the Nasdaq 100 futures
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for a fifth consecutive gain to a 10-day high. Networking,
financial, and oil service stocks helped broaden the rally, for positive
finishes in all index futures. 


Pivots
proved prescient in Thursday’s trading. In the Nasdaq futures, 3765
was both the pivot and Wednesday’s close. The futures formed an intraday,
triple-top in the first hour in the NDU0 before rallying up another 10 and
exploding beyond another key level.  In Tuesday’s Futures
Market Recap
, I pointed out that the 3775 area would be pivotal in the
NASDAQ 100 futures
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. The accompanying chart shows how a break of this
area led to 30-point explosion in intraday trading Thursday. NDU0 closed up
84.50 at 3848.00.

September S&P futures
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got off to a slow start, but also rallied
back to opening levels which coincided with the TradingMarkets.com Pivot,
at 1492. The SPUs then rallied out of a 1-2-3-4 intraday pullback to achieve the
S1 objective before drifting sideways the rest of the session to close up 12.10
at 1503.60.

Facing the prospects of insufficient supply to meet
heating fuel demand, heating oil rallied to contract highs before pulling back.
Prices have shot up nearly 3% before edging off highs. From the Momentum-5
List
, heating oil gained steam following bullish comments from
Venezuela’s oil minister. Ali Rodriguez, who is also acting as OPEC’s president,
said the cartel would not raise output before its next scheduled meeting on
September 10. Heating oil
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 closed
.0185 higher at .8873.

Also from the Momentum-5
List
, crude oil tagged its high mark before pulling back to finish .14
higher at 31.94.

Pork contracts rebounded from recent steep declines that
had left lean hogs
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and pork bellies
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oversold. Hogs and bellies retraced some of
their limit down, or near-limit down moves to close .650 and 1.375 higher,
respectively.