Spread traders sparking Heating Oil rally!

Normally, Heating Oil futures are quiet in the summer, as traders focus on Gasoline supplies going into the peak US driving season. However, the past few sessions, Heating Oil has out- performed its product mate, as low Heating Oil stocks and unwinding of Gasoline/Heating Oil spreads by large speculative accounts have caught traders by surprise. Read More.....

The European World Waits

Much of the currency world is awaiting the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decision. The European Central Bank’s interest rate decision is likely to make no impact, because the market has completely priced in a 25bp rate hike. Read More.....

Energy Traders Focus on Products

RBOB – RBOB Gasoline is down for the third consecutive day, as the market appears well-supplied at the moment. Prices at the pump have begun to stabilize around the nation with no major disruptions to refineries. Energy traders will be looking past the Crude Oil number, focused on the gasoline and distillates number. Read More....

Canadian Dollar reaches new highs

S&P – Stock indexes are slightly higher this morning on speculation that M&A activity will continue to blossom. Kirk Kerkorian indicated that he is shopping around different options for his majority stake in MGM, signaling that he may sell his shares. Read More....

Dollar continues to fall

The EUR/USD broke through the 1.3500 mark last night from positive PMI Service numbers, posting 57.3 verses 57.1 forecasted. The PMI is the gauge for the overall performance of the German service sector. Read More.....

Got bull market?

If you thought the rising cost of Crude Oil was bad, just check out what is going on in the Milk market. Growing worldwide demand, lower US surpluses, and higher feed costs have CME fluid Milk futures up sharply this year. Read More....

China Sinks Global Shares

S&P – Stock indexes are lower coming into trading this morning, led by a meltdown in the Chinese stock market. The CSI 300 Index fell over 290 points to close at 3,511.43, as traders do not expect the Chinese government to intervene to curb the sharply correcting market. Read More...

Balanced Start?

At the start of the currency week, most majors are trading in familiar places, despite the current sell-off happening in China. The Shanghai stock index plunged by more than 8%, breaking the key 3700 support trendline- which is viewed as more of a correction in the market as opposed to a full blown trend reversal. Read More....

Melted Chocolate

Cocoa futures continue to struggle, falling to 4-week lows in early trading this morning, as forecasters are calling for a smaller Cocoa deficit this season and a Cocoa surplus for the 2007-08 season. Current estimates are for a 130,000 ton surplus for the upcoming crop year, which should put a halt to the largest Cocoa rally in nearly 4 years. Read More....

Big Numbers Day

Even with the overwhelming amount of fundamental data released this morning, no clear direction has been determined in the markets. Breaking down the data reveals that job growth for May was average, but the personal income and PCE deflator data were not good enough for the US dollar to hold onto its gains. Read More.....

Payrolls rebound in May!

US payrolls improved in May, rising by 157,000 jobs, or nearly double the revised 80,000 job gain in April according to the Labor Department. This was just above the pre-report estimate for a gain of between 140,000 and 150,000 jobs. As expected, the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.5%. Read More....

Gold Jumps on Supply Cut

Gold – December Gold is trading $6 higher this morning after a statement by the European Central Bank (ECB) that it plans to halt sales of the precious metal until September. The recent price slump caused India, the world’s largest user of Gold, to ramp up imports of the metal. Read More....

Analysts’ opinions mixed on tomorrow's non-farm payrolls report

Economists and traders have a relatively wide range of estimates on tomorrow's payroll figures. On the low end are those looking at yesterday's release of the ADP/Macroeconomic estimate of 97,000 new private sector jobs created in May. Read More....

Asia Rebounds

Asian indexes were able to shrug off a day of heavy losses after China announced a hike in stamp duties on mainland stock trades. A defiant rally in Wednesday's U.S. session gave confidence to other markets to continue the bull movement. Read More....

Too little too late?

That is the question being asked by energy traders as several US refinery operations restart just as the peak US driving season is underway. Since reaching contract highs of 2.3419 on May 18th , July RBOB Gasoline futures have fallen over 17 cents as traders covered long positions in anticipation of increasing Gasoline output. Read More....

Bonds Unable to Get the Ball Rolling

Bonds – Bonds are posting modest gains after the Q1 GDP figure this morning, which came in at 0.6 percent to surprise even the most pessimistic economic forecasters. Although the figure is Bond bullish, the stock market shook off the news and is stronger coming into trading this morning. Read More....

Kiwi Climbing

The New Zealand and Australian Dollars have had good runs this morning, pushing to .7372 (Kiwi) and .8288 (AUD) against the US Dollar. In early morning trading, the Kiwi broke through technical resistance around the .7315 level and shot up 50 points to the current high. Read More....

Crude Recovers, Stock Fall

Crude Oil – July Crude Oil is up slightly this morning after losing over two dollars in yesterday’s trade. Refineries have been running smoothly of late, leading traders to believe that production will in fact meet demand. Read More....

Gold continues to consolidate, but for how long?

Gold futures have been taking a breather of late as long liquidation, moderate European central bank selling, and weaker Oil prices have taken a bit of the luster out of the market. However, this may be the calm before the storm! Read More....

Pound and Euro Down

The US Dollar got a small reprieve this morning with both the Pound and the Euro trading lower. Both pairs took a beating on weak Euro PMI numbers, most notably in Germany, which saw a huge collapse from 55.6 to 47.3. Retailers blamed the drop on the inclement weather between April and May, and expect better demand as the summer progresses. Read More....

Let the weather markets begin!

With the Memorial Day holiday behind us, commodity traders will turn their focus to the grain markets with the start of the potentially volatile growing season. The Soybean complex has been in the spotlight the past week, with contract highs being made in new-crop November Beans, and front month Bean Oil futures at 20-year highs. Read More....