Wednesday’s Futures Setups

U.S. Treasuries gained
for the first day in three as the government went on heightened alert
for terrorism, a day before the first anniversary of the World Trade Center and
Pentagon attacks. Demand for
the safest investments picked up after the Navy warned that Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qaeda network, which carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, may hit oil tankers in
the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. The Dec. 30-year U.S. Bond rose .59 to close at
111.21. The Dec. 10-year note rallied up .34 to 113.04.

All of the pre-9-11 anniversary
talk and warnings made for a volatile market in the equities. I’m not sure if
this is a good 0men, but the Sept. S&P 500 futures
(
SPU2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) closed at
911, a positive close by 10.40. This close was just above the 38% retracement
level (908.84) drawn from the Aug/Sept. downtrend.

The Nasdaq 100 for Sept.
(
NDU2 |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) had some help today from the Semiconductors
(
$SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Chip equipment sectors. The NDU2 is getting close to hitting its
20-day moving average. Today the 23.50 positive move pushed the Nasdaq 100
futures to 951.50, a 2.48% gain.