Today we had an impressive settlement, as Gold fought off earlier weakness to settle at 1,115.20, a new all-time high settlement. For the day we opened at 1,145 posted a high at 1,151.50 and a low at 1,132.50 for a 20 dollar trading range.
Silver opened at 18.54 posted a high at 1859.5, a low at 1803.5, and a settlement at 1805.0.
Moving on to the Stock Indexes, we had a nice recovery, once again, as the markets mimicked Thursday’s action. The Bears pounded on the stocks early, couldn’t get any follow through, and spent the rest of the day selling 30 tick breaks, only to have it jammed in their faces time after time with short-covering rallies.
DJZ opened at 10326, posted a high at 10332 early in the day, broke down to 10236 and then rallied to settle at 10304 for a net loss on the day of 20 ticks. The bears tried numerous times to get a hold this afternoon and dress the charts up for the weekend but were unable to.
I think a lot of traders were looking for a better correction, but true to form, the market rewarded contrary opinions in the end. SPZ opened at 1094.0, posted an early high at 1095.0, slammed to its day session low at 1083.5, then rallied to settle at 109.25 down only 4 handles.
The grains saw bearish-hook-reversal formations in both the Beans and the Wheat. Corn displayed an inside-day-down. On balance, bearish hooks are more indicative of the next day’s price action than a simple inside-day-down.
CZ opened at 384 3/4, marked a high at 399 ( resistance at 4.00) fell to a low at 390 1/4 and settled at 391, down 3 1/2 cents for the day.
SF opened at 1041, posted a low at 1031 1/2 in the morning, rose to high at 1050 late in the day, but was unable to Pierce that level. SF settled down 1 1/2 cents at 1044 1/2.
Wheat had another wide trading range, which shows us all what happens when you have liquidity issues in a market. WZ opened at 563 1/4, had a high at 572 1/4 and a low at 553 1/4 for a 19 cent trading range. WZ settled down 4 cents on the day at 558.
WZ was again hemmed in by the 575 level ( corresponding to that strike price) just as CZ was hemmed in by the 400 level. Strike prices in the options are heavily traded around the round numbers and on the multiples of 5. So you have resistance/ and or support at those round numbers, as options traders hedge their delta, gamma, vega, theta, yada, yada, yada… by buying or selling futures at that strike price to try to remain delta neutral, or in other words to manage their risk.
This week will be short because of Thanksgiving. Most likely we will have the bulk of the business for the week done by Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday Morning at the latest.
My own personal preference is to not want to be short next week, unless we start melting through supports. If that is the case, I would chose to use stop orders to enter the market, rather than trying to chase these flighty, choppy, thinly traded markets that are associated with holiday weeks.
Have a great weekend.
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Best To You All
