Highlights & Announcements + Futures Trading Levels for 02.23.24

Bullet Points, Highlights, Announcements

General / Stock Indexes: 

You can’t keep a good index down.  When the stock price of a member of the Magnificent Seven Stocks – artificial-intelligence chip leader Nvidia – advances 15% for the day on its quarterly earnings report and the company’s market cap. approaches $2-Trillion, it moves the stock indexes of which it is a component – the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500. 

Their related futures contracts lead the way with the S&P 500 claiming its largest daily increase in months – over 105 points at this typing – to new all-time highs for the contract, pushing over 5,100.  The E-mini Nasdaq advanced ±550 points over 18,000 and the E-mini Dow Jones added over ±500 points to set its own new all-time high near 39,200.

Not to be outdone, Japan’s main stock index, the Nikkei 225, closed at its own new all-time high above 39,000, a level it set 34 years ago before the country fell into the doldrums of a deflationary economy.  In fact, the Nikkei has been the world’s best-performing major index in 2024, surging ±17.5% only two months into the year and trouncing the impressive ±5% advance of the S&P 500.  Ironically, Japan is still amidst a recession and just fell behind Germany to the no. 4 spot among the world’s leading economies.

Largest economies in the world by GDP (nominal) in 2023

according to International Monetary Fund estimates

Metals: 

After a week-long ±$50 break to below $2,000/oz. intraday on Feb. 14, April gold recovered ±$30 and has stayed rangebound over the last few trading sessions as the minutes of the Fed’s late-January meeting released yesterday showed that the bank was in no hurry to begin cutting interest rates.

Grains: 

March corn futures dropped to three-year lows today, trading within five cents of $4.00 per bushel on plentiful domestic supply and signals that South America will harvest strong crops this year.

Energies: 

Signs of production declines sent natural gas futures contracts into rally mode this week with the front month March contract seeing a ±20-cent increase off its life-of-contract lows – a ±$2,000 move.  U.S. exploration and production company Chesapeake Energy signaled it plans to reduce its natural gas production this year by roughly 30% given extremely low prices.

Daily Levels for February 23rd, 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.