Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

We've asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Gold Futures

Gold futures in the December contract settled last Friday in New York at 1,235 an ounce while currently trading at 1,233 unchanged for the trading week hitting a three week low in Wednesday's trade before rallying sharply yesterday because the U.S. dollar was down 90 points. I'm sitting on the sidelines as this market remains extremely choppy with no trend even though we are trading above their 20 and 100-day moving average as gold prices have been supported by the breakout which has occurred in the platinum market which is also higher once again in today's trade. The next major level of resistance is around the 1,245 level as that has to be broken for the bullish momentum to continue. I still have a bullish bias towards the U.S. dollar despite the recent setback so keep an eye on this market while looking at other commodities that are beginning to trend as many of the sectors have come to life. Volatility in gold is average at the current time as we are experiencing $20 up and down days, but that's pretty normal for this market over the course of time and remember if you have a smaller account you can always trade the mini contract which is 1/3 of the large contract.
TREND: MIXED
CHART STRUCTURE: POOR
VOLATILITY: AVERAGE

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U.S. Crude Production Soars In August

The Energy Information Administration reported that August crude oil production averaged 11.346 million barrels per day (mmbd), up 416,000 b/d from July. The surge was led by a 126,000 b/d increase in Texas and a 74,000 b/d rise in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the increases were broadly based, implying a lagged-response to rising oil prices this year has created enough incentive to ignite production. The large rise in Texas was also unexpected due to reported pipeline constraints.

production

production
Continue reading "U.S. Crude Production Soars In August"

S&P 500 and NASDAQ Still Below 200-Day MA

Hello traders everywhere. All three indexes are looking to post weekly gains on a nice little rally that happened this week. They were all looking to close above their respective 200-day MA's, but it looks like the S&P 500 and NASDAQ will fall just short, while the DOW is trading above it once again. Could the 200-day MA be the line of resistance for the two indexes? The last time that the indexes traded below the 200-day was back in December of 2015 and that trend lasted until March of 2016. We could be in for a rough close to the year if history holds true.

As we stand in early afternoon trading on Friday the S&P 500 is looking at posting a weekly gain of +2.3%; the DOW stands at +2.3% and the NASDAQ checks in with an increase of +2.7% even as Apple Inc. (APPL) missed earnings and is putting pressure on the tech sector losing roughly 6% on the day.

s&p 500

The U.S. Dollar and Gold continue to track each other consistently and are both relatively unchanged on the week. On the opposite side of trading, crude oil has dipped to its lowest levels in six months issuing a new red monthly Trade Triangle indicating that long-term trend has turned negative. Oil is posting a -6.6% loss on the week making this four straight weeks of declines. The reason for the drop is an abundance of oil in the world market which is relieving tensions over the coming Iranian sanctions by the U.S. Continue reading "S&P 500 and NASDAQ Still Below 200-Day MA"

Amazon's October Drop Hurting ETFs

Most recent data shows 246 different Exchange Traded Fund’s owned more than 24.7 million shares of Amazon.com (AMZN). But, the companies recent 20.9% decline in the month of October alone, (Amazon opened October trading at $2,021 per share and closed the month trading at $1,598 per share, or a 20.9% decline) has certainly had an effect on not only those 246 different ETFs and their investors, but also those investors whom may have directly purchased shares of the company. Furthermore, due to its market capitalization, it was a very heavily weighted stock in some large ETFs, which makes its recent decline even more painful.

Some of the hardest hit ETFs over the last month was the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) because Amazon was its second, now third, largest holding and SPY was the single largest owner of Amazon stock. ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN) had 22% of its assets in Amazon as of late, while the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) both had more than 20% of their assets in Amazon.

Throughout the ETF world, there where eight different ETFs which had more than 10% of their assets in Amazon in recent weeks. Most were in the consumer discretionary sector, but a few internet focused ETFs such as the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ), and the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index ETF (FDN) had more than 9% of their assets in Amazon. Continue reading "Amazon's October Drop Hurting ETFs"

Spooky October Comes To An End

Hello traders everywhere. Happy Halloween! I hope that everyone has a safe and fun time with your friends and family. While the stock market currently has the best two-day gain since June of 2016 to close out October we need to remember that overall this has been a terrible month.

Even with the first back to back daily gains of October the S&P 500 will lose roughly 6.4% posting its first monthly loss in six months. -4.6% is the number for the DOW this month, while off the lows the month this is the first monthly loss in three months. The DOW is the only index of the three to have a green monthly Trade Triangle in play still, but our key level to watch is a touch higher at 24,122.23 where a red monthly Trade Triangle will trigger. The NASDAQ has suffered the most losing 8.6+ on the month, that will give the NASDAQ back to back losing months, which last occurred in March of this year.

October

Of the instruments that I watch daily the U.S. dollar and gold the only two to have a positive month with the dollar gaining 2.2% and gold having its best month in eight months posting a gain of almost 2%. On the flip side, crude oil is having its worst month since 2015, losing nearly 10% on the month. Continue reading "Spooky October Comes To An End"