Halftime Report 7.18.2012

Natural Gas futures rose with the country’s temperatures gaining 12.6 cents to $2.9220. WTI crude futures continued their rise, gaining a modest 15 cents to $89.37. Gold futures fell with EUR/USD futures, falling $16.30 to $1573.20 and 24 pipps to $1.2273 respectively.

Intel Corp (INTC) and Honeywell Inc. (HON) were at the top of today’s earning reports with strong earnings and high guidance relative to this season’s earnings so far.

Investors were bullish on stocks this morning on hopes of QE3. I think that today’s rally can be easily erased and would not long stock indices until they fall back from the past week’s impulsive gains.  S&P 500 futures rose 8.75 points to 1367.25, NASDAQ futures rose 30 points to 2617.00 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 99 points to 12836.00.

Interactive Brokers Group (IBKR) fell over 4% after reporting weak earnings. I would assume that their weak earnings are due to traders pulling out of the market, hence less commission revenue.

David Cornes holds a degree in economics from the University of Montana.