More Fed Members to Speak Tomorrow. Volatile Markets Across the Board! + Levels for April 18th

What to look for the rest of the trading week:

By Mark O’Brien, Senior Broker

General:   

It’s not far fetched to state that there is anxiety in the marketplace.  Gold and silver prices have exploded – the former to all-time highs, the U.S. dollar has climbed the entire first quarter including a sharp ±200 point rise over the last two weeks and financial institutions worldwide are facing rising interest rate pressures.  Here in the U.S. last week’s hotter-than-expected March CPI and PPI reports reflected a growing economy straining to “tap the brakes.”

Moreover, in the Middle East tensions have reached their highest levels in decades as the region braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend in response to an apparent Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed 12 people, including two Iranian generals.

Energies: 

Noteworthy for its downside move, natural gas has been contending with substantial inventories and muted demand for months and the front month May futures contract has now lost nearly half its value since November – from ±$3.300 down to $1.675 per MMBtu, a ±$16,000 per contract move for the standard 10,000 MMBtu contract.

Softs:  

The latest commodity futures contract to make a break for higher prices is coffee.  After trading within a ± 20-cent range between ±$1.80 and ±$2.00/pound all year, the last two weeks have seen a brake above $2.40/pound, roughly a $7,500 per contract move (each 1-cent move in coffee = $375), driven by fears of decreased output from Brazil and Vietnam, which are major producers in the coffee industry.

Metals:   

June gold is poised to set its latest all-time high closing price at the close of trading today, above $2,400 per ounce.  On Friday, it traded to an intraday high of $2,447.6 per ounce only to plummet $97.00 per ounce to an intraday low of $2,350.60 per ounce – a $9,700 move for the 100-oz. contract – in a span of ±4 hours!

Daily Levels for April 18th, 2024

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* This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts here in contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable, but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgement in trading.