FED Decision Today!Good Morning!
Apple (O:AAPL) drove the stock market while the API Energy Stocks showed a ridiculously high build of 11.4 million barrels. Adding to this trading session mix are New Home Sales at 9:00 A.M., EIA Energy Stocks at 9:30 A.M. and Dairy Product Sales at 2:00 P.M. And we expect the Fed to hold rates in check and wait to hear the verbiage of their decision. If all goes well the market may find support even with overall weak earnings yesterday.
On the corn front the market just can’t seem to pull itself up from its bootstraps. The market is primarily trading weather and hinging on next month’s Crop Production USDA Supply/Demand data on February 9. In the overnight electronic session the March corn is currently trading at 368 ½, which is ¾ of a cent lower. The trading range has been 370 ¾ to 368 ½.
On the ethanol front there were no trades posted in the overnight session. The February contract settled at 1.400 and is looking weak in sympathy of corn and crude oil prices posting 2 bids @ 1.383 and 3 offers @ 1.397.
On the crude oil front, do traders actually believe that whopping build of 11.4 million barrels? Was this do to the blizzard that created demand destruction? Will the EIA Energy Stocks contradict the API data? One thing is for sure the market was not motivated to break $30 a barrel with such a huge bearish number. In the overnight electronic session the March contract is currently trading at 3085 which is 60 points lower. The trading range has been 3122 to 3014 so far. The EIA Energy Stocks and the Fed decision will loom large on where the market heads today.
On the natural gas front today is LAST TRADING DAY on the February Futures. If you’re long, BEWARE! Rollover or Liquidate the earlier the better... It must be done by 1:30 P.M. Central time. On the March contract in the overnight electronic session we are currently trading at 2.187, which is .029 cents higher. The trading range is 2.205 to 2.131 so far. Colder temperatures ahead of tomorrow’s EIA Gas Storage where a large draw is expected. I will have the Thomson Reuters poll and average guesstimates of how large a draw is expected in the injection number.
Have a Great Trading Day!