March corn futures prices on the Chicago Board of Trade closed sharply lower Friday, near the session low and at a bearish weekly low close and another fresh contract low. More losses in crude oil and a stronger U.S. dollar pressured corn.

Corn bears have the overall near-term technical advantage and gained more power on Friday. There are still no solid technical clues of a market low being close at hand. Corn prices are still trading below a five-month-old downtrend line on the daily bar chart.

The next downside price objective for the bears is to push and close prices below major psychological support at $3 per bushel. The bulls’ next upside price objective is to push and close prices above solid technical resistance at $3.25.

The corn futures market and the other grain futures markets will continue to be influenced by the key “outside markets” – crude oil, value of the U.S. dollar and U.S. stock indexes. Corn will likely be supported on trading days when stock indexes and crude oil are higher while the U.S. dollar is weaker. Conversely, on days when stocks and crude oil are weaker while the U.S. dollar is stronger, the corn futures market will likely see downside selling pressure. This is a classic example of the very real phenomenon of intermarket analysis.

The VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis trading tool (www.TraderTech.com) also suggests more downside price pressure for March corn. VantagePoint is a valuable trading tool that employs intermarket analysis to forecast near-term price trends. Intermarket analysis is the study of how markets are inter-related and impact each other’s daily price moves.

The VantagePoint daily bar chart for March corn shows that the predicted 4-day exponential moving average of typical prices two days ahead (blue line) is below the actual 10-day simple moving average close (black line), which is a bearish signal.

Also note on the daily chart for March corn that VantagePoint’s Predicted Neural Index (PIndex) is presently reading 0.00, suggesting still more downside price pressure in the near term. When the predicted simple three-day moving average value of typical prices is greater than today’s actual three-day moving average value, the Predicted Neural Index is 1.00, indicating that the market is expected to move higher over the next two days. When the predicted simple three-day moving average value of typical prices is less than today’s actual three-day moving average value, the Predicted Neural Index is 0.00, indicating the market is expected to move lower over the next two days.

The Predicted Neural Index, a proprietary VantagePoint indicator, is either correct or incorrect so its performance can be measured in terms of percent correct to produce the accuracy statistics cited for VantagePoint, which has a predictive accuracy rate of around 80% across a wide range of markets and time spans in ongoing research.

About Market Technologies, LLC
Headquartered in Tampa Bay since its founding in 1979 by Louis B. Mendelsohn, with trading software customers in over 90 countries worldwide, Market Technologies is a fast growing, Inc. 500, company and recognized world leader in market forecasting. Market Technologies researches and develops proprietary trend forecasting and market timing technologies that utilize artificial intelligence applied to intermarket and hurricaneomic analysis, in order to forecast various commodity and financial markets throughout the world. These presently include, but are not limited to, stocks, stock indexes, ETFs, energies, interest rates, currencies, metals, grains, meats, softs and Forex, covering over 600 world markets.

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