The market has rediscovered some positive momentum this week and that was maintained with a gap opening which saw Oct’24 trading up to 19.32 within the first ten minutes. A dip followed to fill the gap before the market looked to consolidate the early gains, though volume was lacking and by mid-morning prices had slipped back to a small deficit. The damage was not critical and through the middle part of the session we saw the price action continue above 19c and ensure that the gloss of recent performances was maintained. This situation changed midway through the afternoon with a push down through 19.00, with no apparent reason for the drop aside from small trader liquidation on concerns that the move has stalled. Across a couple of bursts of selling the price dropped to 18.75 however there was some supportive buying for the final hour which retrieved some of the losses and brought the price back to the 18.90 area. The close then saw additional buying to leave Oct’24 concluding the month at 18.94 before post-close prints at 19.02 attempted to maintain some gloss for tomorrow.
Opening buying saw Oct’24 gap higher and trade to $544.00 before the situation calmed and the market settled down to try and consolidate the early gains. This was initially achieved successfully though by later morning the buying had fallen away and so the price edged back to fill the gap and leave only token gains showing. This situation maintained through into the early afternoon when with buyers thinning out the market started to struggle a little more and slip back down through the $530’s. With limited scale buying the decline took place against low volume, with long liquidation doing the damage as a second push lower saw the price trade to a low of $529.40. This price proved to be short-lived with Oct’24 quickly jumping back up to $535.00, though lacking the momentum to make any further inroads into the losses. The movement had led to some further narrowing of the nearby white premium values with Oct/Oct’24 having traded below $114 intra day (from early highs at $119), though by late afternoon it was back above $117.00 and little changed on the day. There was a defensive push on the close to limit the losses ahead of month end, leaving Oct’24 to settle at $535.00 with Oct/Dec’24 valued at $10.90 as we move into August.
