What’s Up, What’s Down: Focus on Grains

Comments for Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Looking Ahead to Today by Reflecting Back at Tuesday’s Price Action

GRAINS:

Higher to sharply settlement Tuesday for corn, rough rice, oats, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Chicago wheat along with soybeans, soymeal and soyoil. All of the wheat continue to be in down-trends overall as evidenced by the Chicago wheat chart below. Corn settled higher with its highest close in a week. Still, corn should continue working towards the 350 area where its support(Mar. contract) starts and goes down to 425. However, this might be a long, struggling process to get there if I’m correct. Traditionally the grains fill around 90% of their gaps and the December corn contract has one at 392 1/2. Rice settled sharply higher giving me a BUY SIGNAL this time. However, the projection higher isn’t that great technically at this time. Oats settled higher this time still looking very weak overall while in a BEAR TRIANGLE. On the other side of the coin there is very little resistance up to 255 basis the March contract posing a large risk. The beans and meal made new recent lows again but rallied to settle higher this time in reversal type action. Oil closed sharply higher with its highest settlement in two weeks! The trend is still lower but this could be the start of a reversal. On the other hand there is good resistance in the 3800 area basis the March contract.

Wheat Chart

Oats Chart

Rice Chart

Oats Chart 2

Need help in formulating a Plan? Download a free Trading Plan Template by clicking or copy/pasting to your browser: https://www.zaner.com/3.0/ljstradingplantemplate.asp.

Read the balance of my morning comments, including the Metals, Softs, Energies and Grains, at my website. For my complete coverage, visit my commentary page at www.markethead.com.

Rick Alexander has been a broker and analyst in the futures business for over thirty years. He is a Vice-President for Sales and Trading at the Zaner Group (www.zaner.com) a Chicago-based futures brokerage firm. If you would like a free booklet explaining the charts mentioned above, email Rick at ralexander@zaner.com.

The information in this Report and the opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation by Rick Alexander or the Zaner Group of the purchase or sale of any futures or options. Futures and options trading is speculative in nature and involves risks. Spread trading is not necessarily less risky than outright positions. Futures and options trading is not suitable for all investors.

FREE 7 day trial to any TradingMarkets stock or ETF trading services! Based on quantified, backtested trading strategies, get your free 7 day trial today – Click Here.