Profit Warnings Make Indexes Struggle

Marc Dupee will be out of the office until
October 9. In his absence this column will be written by TradersWire’s Duke
Heberlein.

While the European markets were able to stage a recovery in Wednesday’s
trading, American stocks were hindered by profit warnings which kept the indexes
in check and fatigued the stock index futures. While many analysts had pegged
the markets as oversold, the Dow
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, S&P Cash
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and the
Nasdaq Composite
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all slid in sympathy over the last half of the
session. This activity weighed down the indexes, who struggled
to tread water and keep losses in check. Only a rally very late in the day was
able to pull the futures up into the green, with the Dow futures
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gaining the most, up 20.00 to 10755.00 the Naz Dogs
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gaining 4.50 to
3622.00 and the December S&P futures
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eking out a 2.00 point gain
to end up at 1445.00 heading into the Globex overnight trading.

The European Central Bank’s attempt to support the Euro FX
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was
put under additional stress amid speculation that Denmark will vote against
joining the EMU on Thursday. Published opinion polls are leaning toward the
Danes rejecting European Union membership. While some are seeing possible
front-running of the result of the decision – as the Euro was driven down to
.88170 prior to recouping some of its losses late in trading to finish up .0012
to .88690, many analysts are calling the vote too close to know for certain. The
December dollar index futures
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on the TradingMarkets.com Pullback
From Highs List
, continued with its pullback, finishing down a slight .14 at
112.87. The Japanese yen
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 enjoyed a respite from its recent
downtrend, gaining .0027 to close at .9453.

With the index futures and currencies struggling Wednesday, precious metals
may have reaped some benefit from the others’ misery. December gold
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posted a gain of 4.30 to end the day at 281.60 and silver
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was up
.0006 at 502.

February pork bellies
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despite being on the Pullback
From Lows List
, shot up in trading, gaining 4.78%, the top commodity gainer
in the session. This action places the contract above its eight-week trendline
and could be signaling a potential reversal after this gap up opening and strong
close.

October sugar
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, mentioned by Director of Research Dave Landry as
a possible pullback from lows, was up Wednesday, yet appears to still be in
retracement from lows mode and could still be vulnerable downside action.

In the energies, November
heating oil
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 responded to further concerns of a harsh winter, as
the contract added .0174 to close at .9505. In the rest of the petroleums,
however, the opposite was true, as unleaded gasoline
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lost .0048 to
end at .8931 and November crude
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lessened by .04 per barrel to end
regular trading at 31.46.