
January 24, 2012 - Issue 439	Unsubscribe \| View In Browser

	Energies: Crude Oil
	Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist
Crude oil futures finished Tuesday's session in negative territory pressured by renewed fears over European sovereign debt issues. The majority of Tuesday's pressure came after euro-zone policy makers and Greek bondholders once again failed to come to an agreement concerning Greek debt swaps. This coupled with an announcement that the IMF is cutting its forecast for global economic growth to 3.3% in 2012 and 3.9% in 2013 from September forecasts of 4% and 4.5% inspired some fresh selling in oil futures as investors bet that global energy demand will slow along side of growth. However, despite their weakness, oil prices remained underpinned by a volatile situation between Iran in the west that was further exacerbated by the European agreement to ban oil imports from Iran beginning July 1st. March light, sweet crude futures settled 63 cents lower at $98.95 per barrel on the NYMEX.

	Energies: Stock Estimates - Week Ending January 20th
	Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist
Crude Oil: +1.45 mil bbl Unleaded Gas: +2.0 mil bbl Distillate: -0.125 mil bbl

Grains: Corn, Soybeans, & Wheat

Brain Wagner - Senior Market Specialist

Corn
Corn futures surged with strong cash markets and continued worries about South America's crop. Crop estimates for Argentina are still plummeting due to drought, and traders are expecting buyers will need to buy more corn form the US to meet their needs. But US supplies are already tight, and some traders think the USDA overstated domestic stockpiles in its latest report. Corn rallied Tuesday despite overnight weakness.

Soybeans
Soybeans futures ended higher following the rally in corn and wheat futures. The bean market ended at a 2-week high, as the influence of higher grain prices enabled traders to set aside the negative influence of beneficial rains in Argentina and Brazil. The bean market was swept up in the flow of speculative money coming into the market.

Wheat
Wheat futures rallied ending sharply higher on strength in corn and uncertainty about Black Sea exports. Rumors about potential Russian curbs to wheat exports gave the market a positive tone. Ample world supplies and Black Sea region exports in particular have been a dominant negative factor for US prices for months, and any reduction in exports there could give the US more opportunities. Also in the rumor mill are talks of Argentina government banning exports. Nothing confirmed.

	Metals: Gold
	Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist
Gold futures ended Tuesday's session in negative territory as European concerns spark a round of profit-taking. Gold futures have managed to string together an impressive $150 plus rally from the December lows to the January highs. However, the rally seemed to run out of steam on Tuesday as investors began voicing their concerns over the inability for European policy makers and Greek bondholders to come to an agreement. In addition, the IMF also announced that they were cutting their 2012 and 2013 global economic growth forecasts to 3.3% and 3.9%. This caused a round of selling in gold futures as traders decided to book profits as optimism over the global economic condition began to fade. February Comex gold futures settled $13.80 lower at $1664.50 on the NYMEX.

	Food & Fiber: Orange Juice
	Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist
ICE orange juice futures finished Tuesday's session in negative territory for the first time since January 17th as the market takes a breather. Since the beginning of 2012, OJ futures have seen multiple limit moves resulting in a rally of more than 58 cents. This rally was initially touched off by frost expectations in the orange growing regions of Florida but really took off after the FDA announced it had found small amounts of a banned pesticide in orange juice imports. In addition, concerns over possible disease in Texas oranges was seen as providing further support to orange juice prices. However, a lack of fresh bullish news managed to spark a round of light profit-taking on Tuesday as investors awaited the FDA results of further tests for fungicide in US OJ imports. ICE March frozen concentrate orange juice futures settled $0.195 lower at $2.1800 per pound.

	Food & Fiber: Cocoa
	Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist
ICE cocoa futures rallied to their highest level in 10 weeks on Tuesday as supply concerns provide support. The majority of cocoa's rally came as a result of speculation that dry, hot weather in key producing areas of western Africa may damage the mid-season crop. Tuesday's action was largely attributed to short covering as many traders had taken short position in the market as of late. In addition, some traders pointed to technicals as the reason behind cocoa's rally as it broke out of a bullish flag pattern to the upside. March ICE cocoa futures settled $144 higher at $2413 per metric ton.

Financials: 1/24/12

Travis Rodock - Senior Market Specialist

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks ended mostly in the red Tuesday as investors awaited progress on Greek debt talks and waded through another batch of corporate results.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 33 points, or 0.3%, and the S&P 500 (SPX) shed 1 points, or 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (COMP) managed to gain 2 points, or 0.1%.

Anxiety remains about the European debt crisis and, in particular, Greece's ongoing negotiations with representatives of private-sector creditors to reduce its debt burden.

A deal is a key condition for Greece to receive additional bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Without this financial support, Greece may not be able to make a €14 billion debt payment that's due March 20.

"Europe continues to be a problem without a good solution," said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. "The uncertainty continues to be a big overhang on the market."

Speaking at the Bloomberg Link Sovereign Debt conference in New York, S&P Chairman of Sovereign Rating Committee John Chambers said that even with the writedowns being discussed, any deal between Greece and private-sector investors would "in all likelihood" qualify as a default.

He said Greece's debt burden will be very high and S&P will likely downgrade Greece to "selective default" in the fall.

Meanwhile, investors waded through another round of corporate results, including Dow components Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500), McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) and Travelers (TRV, Fortune 500). Following Tuesday's trading day, tech leaders Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) will announce their results.

"Europe is the primary concern for investors, but we're also in the middle of earnings season, and that causes significant volatility in individual names and can certainly impact the overall market," said Ghriskey.

Following the release of their results, shares of Travelers, Verizon and McDonald's slid, making them the Dow's biggest laggards.

U.S. stocks closed flat Monday, with no major economic reports or company data for investors to chew on.

World markets: European stocks ended lower. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) slid 0.5%, the DAX (DAX) in Germany dropped 0.3% and France's
CAC 40 (CAC40) lost 0.5%.

Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed Tuesday for Chinese New Year. Japan's Nikkei (N225) ended up 0.2%.

eNews: Futures IRA

Roni Kauffman - Client Services Manager

In cooperation with Millennium Trust Company, efutures.com supports futures IRA accounts. Millennium Trust acts as trustee and custodian for self-directed IRAs.

If you would like to open a futures IRA account or have any questions, please call us at 800-854-8738 and ask for Roni.

Both the efutures.com and Millennium Trust account applications must be completed and mailed to Millennium at the following address:

Millennium Trust Company, LLC
820 Jorie Blvd, Suite 420
Oak Brook, IL 60523

Account Forms

The required forms can be downloaded in PDF format from these pages:

- efutures.com Account Forms
- Millennium Forms

Please call us at 800-854-8738 if you have any questions.

Millennium Trust Company, LLC offers self-directed IRA owners the opportunity to custody a variety of alternative assets in their IRA including commodity futures.

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Toll Free: 800-932-0053
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	Margins & Expirations
	Sean Voigts - Customer Service & Marketing
First Notice Day: Jan 30 - Feb - NY Nat Gas Jan 31 - Feb - Copper/ NY Gold, Silver, Platinum & Palladium Last Trading Day: Jan 25 - Jan - TOCOM Rubber \| Feb - TOCOM Gasoline & Kerosene Jan 26 - Jan - Fdr Cattle Jan 27 - Jan - Copper/ NY Gold, Silver, Platinum, & Palladium \| Feb - NY Nat Gas Jan 30 - Jan - Hang Seng/ H-shares \| Feb - ICE Nat Gas Jan 31 - Jan - Feb Funds/ Ldn Coffee/ TOCOM Crude Oil \| Feb - Brazilian Real/ NY Ht Oil, RBOB/ SICOM Rubber Last Trading Day Options: Jan 26 - Jan - Fdr Cattle \| Feb - Copper/ NY Gold & Silver/ NY Ht Oil, RBOB, & Nat Gas Jan 27 - Feb - 2Yr, 5Yr, 10Yr Notes/ Bonds/ Canola/ Corn/ Euro Bobl, Bund, Shatz/ ICE Nat Gas/ Chi, KC, MN Wheat/ Oats/ Rice/ Soybeans/ Soymeal/ Soyoil Jan 30 - Jan - Hang Seng/ H-shares Jan 31 - Jan - Fed Funds \| Feb - Brazilian Real/ JGB/ Lumber/ TOCOM Gold

efutures.com uses sources that they believe to be reliable, but they cannot warrant that accuracy of any of the data included in this report. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Because the risk of loss in trading can be substantial, carefully consider the inherent risks of such an investment in light of your financial condition.

Energies: Crude Oil

Energies: Stock Estimates - Week Ending January 20th

Grains: Corn, Soybeans, & Wheat

Metals: Gold

Food & Fiber: Orange Juice

Food & Fiber: Cocoa

Financials: 1/24/12

eNews: Futures IRA

Margins & Expirations