We didn’t quite get to 10900, my target to cover 1/4 of my shorts. 10,929, or 29 points is the low tick in Dow Cash, Dow futures, printed 10916.
I can’t see anything short term bullish for the stock indexes, save for the seasonal tendency to rally through the end of the year. I had thought the North Korea uncertainty, perhaps the Wiki leaks issue, or the European debt monsters would push us lower.
I still am bearish, and I will leave it at that. However, as always, I have buy stops insuring profitable shorts which have taken the last 5 weeks to develop into profitable holdings.
We are, however, heading into the teeth of the holiday markets. That means choppy, often directionless trading. Monday’s and Friday’s are the two days to watch, with the Tue-Thu sessions amounting to little more than noise.
As for the grains, anything seems possible at this juncture. Overnight we had rumors of Russian buying interest in Argentina. Combine this with the last 4 months of rumors of Chinese interest in Importing Corn, and you have the under pinnings of bullish fundamentals impacting the next 24 months of grain harvesting and grain trading.
I would argue that at some time, the market is going to want to see some confirmation of the rumors. I am not sure how much longer the market will listen to the “little boy who cried wolf”… We have tight grain supplies. But if we don’t get concrete proof of Chinese or Russian buying, the recent gains could disappear like smoke through a key hole.
If you are a farmer and have not hedged these higher prices, content in the rumor mill to support grain prices, you are gambling with your bottom line needlessly.
Price some grain, or better yet, get some protection on.
Good Trading
