Trade ideas, analysis and low risk set ups for commodities, Bitcoin, gold, silver, coffee, the indexes, options and your retirement. We'll help you keep your emotions out of your trading.
Below we highlight our trading range charts of ten major commodities. Most but not all have been on strong runs higher lately.
In the charts below, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the 50 day moving average. Moves above or below the green zone are considered overbought or oversold. As shown, the two most widely followed commodities, oil and gold, are both trading outside of their trading ranges into extreme overbought territory. Silver, platinum, and copper are all at overbought levels as well. Wheat has pulled back to the bottom of its trading range recently, while coffee and orange juice have been heading lower as well. Corn pulled back from overbought territory a couple weeks ago, but it has bounced back some. Finally, natural gas remains in an epic downtrend.
For U.S. energy producers, high priced $11 natural gas is "kind of like a Saturday night drunk," Devon Energy Executive Chairman Larry Nichols said at the opening session of the Unconventional Gas International Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday afternoon. "It may feel good at the time," he said, but it isn't a sustainable high.
Just as an $11 price is too high to persist, today's current market prices of about $3.75 are too low for the industry to thrive and maintain strong natural gas production in the long term, said Nichols, who stepped down this year from his longtime position as CEO of Oklahoma City based Devon, the leading producer in North Texas' gas rich Barnett Shale.
Even in the face of low gas prices, domestic energy producers have continued to do substantial drilling, particularly in major unconventional gas plays such as the Barnett, the Eagle Ford Shale in South and Central Texas, the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and East Texas, and the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian region. By continuing to drill despite weak prices.....Read the entire article.
Crude oil rises after a barrel busting report. US total petroleum supplies hit the highest level in 29 years. Crude stocks are the highest since 1980. Gasoline supplies, the highest levels since 1990. The forward demand covers for supply, the highest since 1995. Demand for petroleum products dropped a whopping 6.4% and prices rise! So I guess this quantitative easing thing is a way to help oil companies and their bottom line. The Fed wants inflation and the Fed gets what it wants and is even thinking about going beyond their informal target rate. The Fed fear deflation and believe that the best weapon against it is inflation real or not.
The Wall Street Journal says that, “the rationale is that getting inflation up even temporarily would push "real" interest rates nominal rates minus inflation down, encouraging consumers and businesses to save less and to spend or invest more” Let’s see how that works for you. At the same time the US and China are getting testy about the currency rate as the Chinese are saying that forcing them to revalue or devalue their currency would lead to a disaster for the world. The set up is so bullish and commodities continue to......Read the entire article.
Crude oil rose for a third day in New York as the dollar extended its decline against the yen and the euro, enhancing the investment appeal of commodities, and after a U.S. government report showed a drop in gasoline stockpiles. Futures climbed as the U.S. currency fell to a 15 year low against the yen and an eight month low against the euro amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve will expand credit easing to sustain the economic recovery. The U.S. Energy Department said yesterday supplies of motor fuel slipped more than forecast by a Bloomberg News survey.
“We’re seeing tremendous dollar weakening,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG in Vienna. “That’s what we saw throughout 2009, which made oil rise from below $40 to $70. This correlation disappeared all year until now, so all commodities are rising.” Oil for November delivery rose as much as 72 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $83.95 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $83.73 at 12:56 p.m. London time. Brent crude for November settlement rose 46 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $85.52 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.
Futures reached their highest price since May 4 yesterday after the Energy Department reported gasoline supplies fell 2.65 million barrels to 219.9 million. They were forecast to decline 250,000 barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Stockpiles of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, dropped 1.12 million barrels.......Read the entire article.
Crude oil was higher overnight as it extends the rally off August's low. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought but remain neutral to bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near term.
If November extends the rally off last week's low, the 62% retracement level of May's decline crossing at 84.65 is the next upside target. Closes below the 20 day moving average crossing at 78.09 would confirm that a short term top has been posted.
First resistance is Wednesday's high crossing at 84.09
Second resistance is the 62% retracement level of May's decline crossing at 84.65
Crude oil pivot point for Thursday morning is 83.20
First support is the 10 day moving average crossing at 79.97
Second support is the 20 day moving average crossing at 78.09
Wednesday’s session closed mixed on the day. The DOW posted a third of a percent gain while the tech sector closed down almost nine tenths of a percent. While technology stocks have been leading the market higher in the recent months, today they took the back seat while the DOW took control. Take a look at the intraday chart of the SPY price action compared to the tech sector. It’s clear the tech stocks where not in favor today. Some tech stocks that really took a beating today were FFIV, NTAP, APKT and AKAM. On another note, we are entering earning season and I am wondering if we are going to see a “Sell the New” type of thing again.
The broad market is experiencing a 36 day down cycle which has played a very dominant roll in the market this year. It topped out 9 days ago so we should expect sideways chop or some selling over the next 9 trading session. Because the market is trending up, pullbacks should be shallow.
The market continues to grind its way higher on relatively light volume. I have been waiting several weeks now for the volume to come back into the market but its just not happening. The majority of shares being traded are from banks, funds and day traders as the average investor’s not taking part because of the uncertainty looming. The lack of volume (commitment) to the market from the masses is making the market internals swing from one extreme to another on virtually weekly basis making it more difficult to take advantage of short term extreme sentiment levels.
The current market environment has traders shifting gears to more of a momentum trading strategy to take advantage of trends and this is what I am going to start implementing again as the market expands.
Market Conclusion:
In short, the equities market is in an up trend but looks to be overbought. Also with the downward cycle I don’t think the market will expand here and take off. Rather it will most likely chop around and burn off time until some earnings are released and the cycle bottoms. Unless we get a really sharp reversal down which we have yet to see on the SP500 or DOW, nibbling on small long positions or staying in cash is what I am doing right now.
As for gold, silver, the dollar and oil… Well the dollar continues to lose value on a daily basis which in turn is boosting metals along with crude oil. All four of those investments are over extended but they are trending and not really looking like they want to reverse just yet.
The gloves are coming off as around the globe the currency tensions are heating up and the printing presses are coming out because when it comes to currencies, everyone wants to be on the bottom. In fact things are getting so heated that the International Monetary Fund is warning that governments are risking a currency war if they try to use exchange rates to solve domestic problems which they say if translated into action would represent a very serious risk to the global economy.
I said yesterday, in a currency war the country with the most ink wins as countries try to print themselves to prosperity in a global race for the bottom. Japan raised the stakes yesterday by hitting critics of their intervention policy by showing the world that there is more than one way to try to intervene in your currency.
The Bank of Japan, by cutting their interest rate to 0%-0.1% and buying 60 billion dollars in assets, was sendng a message of hypocrisy to the critics of their intervention. Now if the Japanese are going to print more money what choice does the Untied State have? The markets believe that.....Read the entire article.
November crude oil futures benefited Wednesday from an unexpected decline in U.S. gasoline inventories last week, along with a weaker dollar. Oil settled at $83.23 a barrel, a 41 cent improvement from Tuesday, after the U.S. Department of Energy announced that total gasoline stocks declined to 219.9 million barrels as of October 1.
The latest figure represents a 1.2% decline from the previous week. The euro, meanwhile, gained 0.723% against the dollar to an exchange rate of US$1.3936 Wednesday. Since September 8, the euro has rallied nearly 9% against the greenback. A weaker dollar relative to the euro typically places upward pressure on oil prices.
The crude oil futures price peaked at $84.09 and bottomed out at $82.29. Given the Energy Department's report on the refined product, gasoline for November delivery also ended the day higher Wednesday. Gasoline rose three cents to settle at $2.16 a gallon after trading from $2.11 to $2.165. Colder temperatures are not expected to set in until later in the season, a prediction that natural gas traders have been quite aware of lately as prices have been low in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, gas futures settled at $3.865 per thousand cubic feet Wednesday, a 3.3% increase from the previous day. The bullish sentiment for gas stems from speculation that the Energy Information Administration would announce a decline in natural gas inventories in a weekly report Thursday. The front-month price for natural gas fluctuated from $3.75 to $3.88.
The U.S. stock indexes closed mixed today. A weak ADP U.S. jobs report did give the stock market bulls pause today. However, the index bulls still have the overall near term technical advantage. Traders are gearing up for Friday's U.S. employment report. Look for more subdued trading in the stock indexes until then, but then look for an active trading day on Friday, in the wake of the jobs data.
Crude oil closed up $0.41 at $83.23 a barrel today. Prices closed near mid-range today and hit a fresh nearly five month high. Bulls have the solid near term technical advantage in crude. Prices are in an accelerating six week old uptrend on the daily bar chart. The next near-term upside price objective for the bulls is producing a close above solid technical resistance at $86.00 a barrel.
Natural gas closed up 11.8 cents at $3.861 today. Prices closed nearer the session high today and saw more short covering in a bear market. The bears still have the solid overall near term technical advantage. The next upside price objective for the bulls is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $4.20.
Gold futures closed up $5.90 at $1,346.20 today. Prices today closed near mid-range and hit another fresh contract and all time record high. A weaker U.S. dollar index and strong investor demand continue to boost the gold market bulls. While gold bulls still have the solid overall near term technical advantage and there are still no significant early technical clues that a market top is close at hand, the market is now a bit over extended on a near term basis and due for a corrective pullback soon.
The U.S. dollar index closed down 33 points at 77.63 today. Prices closed nearer the session low again today and hit another fresh 8 1/2 month low. Bears have the solid overall near term technical advantage. There are still no early clues to suggest a market bottom is close at hand.
Last August I penned an article predicting a massive five year bull run in gold and gold stocks. I outlined my reasoning and compared this 13 year period from 2001 to 2014 to the tech stock bull from 1986-1999. .
In February of this year, I again wrote an article for Kitco.com explaining the 13 year Gold Bull still had a lot more room to run. At the time Gold had pulled back to 1040-1070 windows and I mentioned that “smart money would be accumulating” and we should look for $1300-$1325 as the objective. That brings up forward to October of 2010, with Gold running to $1350 as recently as this morning.
We have a huge rally because we are in the 2nd year of this final 5 year run I predicted, and this is when the general investing public becomes “aware” of the bull market. They miss the first five years from 2001-2006, and then while we consolidate for three years from 2006-2009 they fall asleep. It is not until Gold breaks all time highs that people wake up and start buying. This is typical in a super bull cycle, the behavioral patterns are always the same with the herd. I based my forecast on herd mentality, whether bullish or bearish.
I am now looking for Gold to continue to run during this trampling into the asset from the herds of investors to about $1480-$1520 on this leg before we have a strong correction. That figure is not taken out of the thin air, it’s an Elliott Wave based pattern that I recognize and forecast in advance. Subscribers to my website are exposed to my outside the box forecasts on the SP 500 and Gold all the time. Usually it starts with them not believing, and later they wonder how I arrived at the predictions. To wit, on August 30th I predicted a huge breakout in Silver to $26-$29 per ounce when it was at $18.75 per ounce. This was purely based on the Elliott Wave pattern and the lack of awareness by the investing public at the time of the Silver bull. It is also “poor man’s Gold”, and as simple as that sounds, it is what drives the herd of investors to invest. Look for Silver to continue higher to those target zones before correcting.
Many investors who are briefly exposed to Elliott Wave Theory assume that a certain well known forecaster must be the only person in the world who uses it. Since he is wrong more often than he is right, people toss out Elliott Waves as mad science. That is a mistake and why I continually write articles for Kitco using my Elliott Wave methods to forecast SP 500 and Gold moves in advance. Look for Gold and Gold stocks to continue powering higher than people can imagine over the next four years, and pick up some darts and throw them at some juniors while you’re at it.
You can check out our forecast service at www Market Trend Forecast.com, consider subscribing ahead of our rate increase as well. Best to you and your trading!
The domestic oil and gas sector has been under intense pressure to discover new resources and increase supply. A renewed emphasis on domestic, on-shore drilling has revitalized the industry from coast to coast in North America. To add to the pressure, demand from developing nations will soon exceed even the wildest predictions of only a few years ago. China, India and Brazil will be three of the largest emerging economies set to impact the global supply of oil.
China has overtaken the United States as the largest automaker in the world. There are millions of Chinese buying their first car every year and this trend will only increase. China has emerged as the world's third largest net importer of oil. Just 15 years ago it was a net exporter. It is currently the second largest consumer of oil behind the United States.
In August, China consumed an estimated 35.54 million metric tons of oil, or an average of 8.40 million barrels per day. This pales in comparison to the United States which consumes over 20 million barrels per day, but a dangerous trend is emerging. See the chart below which documents a net increase of 3,328% of oil consumption in China over the past 40 years. With China's middle class emerging at a faster rate than ever before, the next decade could be unforgettable for the oil markets. Are you positioned?
Although renewable energy sources have been making up some ground recently, there are thousands of applications oil is used for and many of them have no substitute. We are many years away from renewable energies taking hold of even a small percentage of the market share (from primary sources of fossil fuel demand).......Read the entire article.
Crude oil was lower due to profit taking overnight as it consolidates some of the rally off August's low. Stochastics and the RSI are overbought but remain neutral to bullish signaling that sideways to higher prices are possible near term.
If November extends the rally off last week's low, August's high crossing at 83.91 is the next upside target. Closes below the 20 day moving average crossing at 77.66 would confirm that a short term top has been posted.
First resistance is the overnight high crossing at 83.33
Second resistance is August's high crossing at 83.91
Crude oil pivot point for Wednesday morning is 81.65
First support is the 10 day moving average crossing at 79.07
Second support is the 20 day moving average crossing at 77.66
Crude oil fell from a five month high before a government report that may show U.S. crude supplies rose last week while traders bet that crude’s rally made the commodity too expensive. Crude earlier reached its highest price since May 4 after a report yesterday showed U.S. gasoline inventories dropped last week by the most since May 2009. The Energy Department may say today crude supplies rose by 413,000 barrels, a Bloomberg News survey shows. Oil’s 14 day relative strength index rose above 70, a sign that prices may drop after rising too far, too fast.
“There is some optimism in the market that inventories are decreasing and the oversupply is shrinking,” said Sintje Diek, an HSH Nordbank analyst in Hamburg. “This is an overreaction by the oil market. The higher prices are not sustainable.” Crude for November delivery traded at $82.71 a barrel, down 11 cents, or 0.1 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:08 p.m. London time. It earlier climbed as much as 51 cents to $83.33 a barrel. Brent crude for November settlement traded at $84.71 a barrel, down 13 cents, on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.
New York futures rose 1.7 percent yesterday after the Institute for Supply Management’s index of non manufacturing businesses, which covers about 90 percent of the U.S. economy, climbed to 53.2 from 51.5 in August. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected the index would advance to 52. Crude’s 14 day relative strength index, a measure of how fast prices have risen or fallen in that period, was at 70.1 today. A reading of 70 or more can be taken as a sign that a market is “overbought” and prices may drop......Read the entire inventory report.
Recently we posted a video that projected some amazing levels for gold. Given the strong upward trend in gold and the price action on Tuesday the 5th of October, it is worthwhile looking at this video again. Today's new short video will certainly give you some more interesting price targets for gold that are based on sound trading principles. We hope you enjoy the video, and as always we would love to have your feedback so please leave a comment. The video is free to watch and there are no registration requirements.
In this new video we explain in detail a particular chart formation that has proven to be very reliable in the past. If we are right, we could see a further move and run in the S&P500 to the upside. The video is free to watch and there are no registration requirements.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery ended the day on a five month high Tuesday after the dollar weakened and equities markets surged. Crude futures settled at $82.82 a barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a $1.35 increase from the previous day. Oil prices tend to correlate with the dollar's relationship to the euro nowadays. On Tuesday the dollar lost ground against euro, supporting oil prices.
The dollar also plummeted against the yen Tuesday. Japan's Central Bank reported that it would cut benchmark interest rates to almost zero in an effort to boost that country's economy. By expanding its liquidity measures, growth oriented assets such as stocks and commodities become cheaper for investors to buy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased more than 200 points in afternoon trading while both NASDAQ and S&P 500 rose more than two percent. Additionally, the disruption in crude shipments in the Houston Ship Channel and the strike at French terminals have also contributed to the increase in oil prices.
November crude oil fluctuated within a range from $81.15 to $82.99.
Henry Hub natural gas futures continued to weaken Tuesday as stockpiles remain abundant and mild weather lingers. Traders anxiously await the upcoming heating season, when cooler temperatures will increase demand for gas heating and hence natural gas fired electricity. Natural gas ended Tuesday's trading session at $3.74 per thousand cubic feet, up a penny from Monday. Natural gas traded from $3.69 to $3.78.
The reformulated gasoline blendstock futures price for November rose to $2.13 a gallon, a 4 cent improvement from Monday and its highest level since Aug. 5. Gasoline prices peaked at $2.13 and bottomed out at $2.08.
The U.S. stock indexes closed solidly higher today. The index bulls have the near term technical advantage and gained some fresh upside technical momentum today. The indexes last week hit fresh multi month highs. Traders are gearing up for Friday's U.S. employment report. Look for more subdued trading in the stock indexes until then, but then look for an active trading day on Friday, in the wake of the jobs data.
Crude oil closed up $1.26 at $82.73 a barrel today. Prices closed nearer the session high today and hit another fresh two month high. Bulls have the solid near term technical advantage in crude. Prices are in a six week old uptrend on the daily bar chart. The next near term upside price objective for the bulls is producing a close above solid technical resistance at the August high of $83.91 a barrel.
Natural gas closed up 4.4 cents at $3.771 today. Prices closed near the session high today and saw tepid short covering in a bear market. The bears still have the solid overall near term technical advantage. The next upside price objective for the bulls is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $4.00.
Gold futures closed up $24.50 at $1,341.30 today. Prices today closed near the session high and soared to a fresh contract and all time record high. A slumping U.S. dollar index continues to fuel the gold market bulls. Generally higher commodity markets today also supported fresh buying interest in the gold market. Gold bulls still have the solid overall near term technical advantage and gained more power today. There are still no significant early technical clues that a market top is close at hand.
The U.S. dollar index closed down 65 points at 78.00 today. Prices closed nearer the session low today and hit a fresh 8 1/2 month low. Prices also scored a bearish "outside day" down on the daily bar chart. Bears have the solid overall near term technical advantage. There are still no early clues to suggest a market bottom is close at hand.
U.S. oil supplies probably rose last week as refineries undergoing seasonal maintenance cut their processing rates to the lowest level since April, reducing demand for crude, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Stockpiles gained 400,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, from 357.9 million, according to the median of 13 analyst estimates before an Energy Department report tomorrow. Gasoline stocks were unchanged in the survey and distillates fell.
Oil prices climbed above $80 a barrel to the highest level in eight weeks after the Energy Department last week reported declines in supplies of gasoline and distillate, including heating oil and diesel. Oil stocks were 13 percent higher than the five-year average in the week ended Sept. 24. “We’re in the heart of maintenance season, so we’d expect a little bit of an increase in crude and a little bit of a drop in products,” said Phil Flynn, a Chicago based analyst and trader with investment adviser PFGBest. “Refinery runs are going to continue to be low.”
Refineries probably operated at 85.3 percent of capacity, down 0.5 percentage point from the previous week, according to the Bloomberg survey. That would be the lowest level since the seven days ended April 2. Rates dropped 2 percentage points in the week ended Sept. 24, compared with a forecast decline of 0.6 percentage point. Eight analysts forecast oil supplies increased last week, four projected a decline and one said there would be no change.....Read the entire article.
Is the winner the country that has the most ink? Gold prices soar to a new record high as once again a global central bank decides to print their way to prosperity. The Bank of Japan gave gold another reason to make a new high by announcing what Dow Jones Newswires says is, “an ambitious” Y35 trillion monetary easing program to spur economic growth while cutting interest rates to virtually zero and launching a Y5 trillion program to buy private and public sector assets. Ambitious?! Boy, I’d say.
I guess there is more than one way to intervene in your currency. The Japan government is adding more stimuli while reducing the confidence in paper money. Looks like a golden opportunity to buy more gold. Perhaps it's time to buy black gold as well. Oil traders love to exploit devalued currencies and devalued confidence in the same way. Yesterday the oil market ignored the rebounding dollar and supplies that are 13% above the five year average and instead returned to focus on the shutdown of the Houston Shipping Channel that was shut down when a barge hit an electrical tower.
That disruption helped send oil to an eight week high. Dow Jones reported that U.S. Coast Guard says that the 3 1/2 mile stretch of the Houston shipping channel will likely be closed until late Tuesday so that low hanging power lines and a listing tower can be cleared away. The closure will affect crude deliveries to four refineries in the Houston ship channel. Dow says that the tower, which carries one of three transmission lines into Exxon Mobil Corp.'s (XOM) Baytown refinery, was struck.....Read the entire article.
