Comments for Thursday May 28, 2009

ENERGIES:

We saw higher closes yesterday for the crude and heating oil along with the robob while mixed for natural gas. All of the energies continue to look higher overall with the exception of natural gas. The crude, heat and the rbob all made new recent highs and closes again while natural gas is in a small bear pennant near a critical area to hold. I continue to hold Buy Signals for Crude and Heating Oil, along with the rbob.

GRAINS:

Higher closes on Wednesday for Minneapolis, Kansas City and Chicago wheat along with soybeans, soyoil, oats and rough rice while lower for corn and soymeal. All of the wheat continue to look strong overall with Minneapolis, KC and Chicago making new recent highs and closes while Chicago wheat made a new recent high before settling slightly lower. Corn settled lower again and, although still in an uptrend, buying breakouts instead up retracements may not be prudent at this time since it seems to be getting dragged higher by the bean complex at this time. Rice settled higher this time but is in a bear triangle and should test its contract lows. Oats settled over 250 basis the July contract to breaking out of its resistance area. Beans and oil closed higher while meal settled lower this time due to some unwinding of meal/oil spreads. The meal/oil spread has been in favor of the meal which has been helping beans overall stay strong. Beans made a new recent high and close while meal had a new recent high before settling lower. Oil closed slightly higher dragging behind the rest of the bean complex and looking somewhat toppy at this point. At least oil has been making higher highs and lows since the middle of March still in a uptrend. I continue to remain bullish on all of the grains except for rough rice.

See the balance of my morning comments, including the Metals, Softs, Energies and Grains, at my website. For my complete coverage, visit my commentary page at www.markethead.com.

Rick Alexander has been a broker and analyst in the futures business for over thirty years. He is a Vice-President for Sales and Trading at the Zaner Group (www.zaner.com) a Chicago-based futures brokerage firm. If you would like a free booklet explaining the charts mentioned above, email Rick at ralexander@zaner.com.