Wednesday’s Futures Setups

October 1, 2002
TradingMarkets Editors

Futures led the charge on the first
day of the last Quarter of 2002. US stocks rallied after Fannie Mae, the largest
home-mortgage buyer, reassured investors falling interest rates won’t crimp its
earnings and Verizon Communications
(
VZ |
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News |
PowerRating) said it will meet its 2002
profit forecast. At the end of trade, Dell Computer
(
DELL |
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PowerRating) announced
that it will exceed earnings expectations for the third quarter.

In a separate newsworthy story, UN officials said Iraq agreed to terms for the
return of weapons inspectors, helping send the Standard & Poor’s 500
Index
(
$SPX.X |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) to its biggest gain since August and the Dow Jones
Industrial Average to its largest advance in more than two months. The S&P
futures for Dec.
(
SPZ2 |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied strong to close above the 62%
retracement drawn from the July low to the August high. This is also above where
the 2.0 Volatility Band is on the S&P 500 cash index. SPZ2 closed higher by
39.50 or 4.85% at 854.10.

After hitting extreme lows yesterday, the Nasdaq 100 futures for Dec.
(
NDZ2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rallied back strongly today, moving up by 6.29% to 886.50. the
Nasdaq 100 futures had a gain of 52.50.

US Treasuries dropped for the first day in three after Fannie Mae said it
increased its protection against falling interest rates. This is fueling
speculation the mortgage financier would buy fewer government securities.
Treasuries briefly pared losses as an industry report showed US manufacturing
contracted for the first time in eight months. Bonds are on the decline. The
10-year note for Dec.
(
TYZ2 |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is trading at 115 070 down 220 and the
Dec. 30 year
(
USZ2 |
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News |
PowerRating) bond is trading at 113’10 down ’30.

Possible
short candidates:

Contract

Setup

Direction

Trigger

Dec. cocoa
(
CCZ2 |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

possible turtle soup plus
one sell

Down

break below 2100

Dec. 30-year bond
(
USZ2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)