Traders wait for Debt Ceiling Vote, all eyes on volume this morning Jobless Claims up first

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US House to Vote on Debt Ceiling is expected today, Thursday.

Gold stalls at the all-time highs as traders wait for news from the US today.

Crude Oil drops to weekly lows after inventories rise and demand falls for second week in a row.

Euro trades inside a narrow wedge pattern as traders are concerned about debt in Europe.

Russell continues to tumble off highs back into the bearish price channel.

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We begin the day with concerns over this debt ceiling vote slowing things down across all markets this morning.  Will traders be watching the clock, waiting for the news?  We assume they will.  All eyes will be on Washington today, and we will be looking to trade the reaction to this news this morning about the debt ceiling.

We begin our day with Jobless Claims at 830am which should give us some decent opportunities early, then we head into the US Market open at 930am and then 1000am Pending Home Sales, and 1030am Natural Gas Inventories.  I wont pay too much attention to Nat-Gas, but we will certainly take any volume we can get today ahead of the GDP on Friday morning.

Looking for volume at 830am, and then watching the clock b/c of this summertime trading day we may see things slow down considerably if we have not received notice on the debt ceiling vote before 1130am.

Friday morning we have GDP, and the Fed Economic summit, so look for traders to hit the exits earlier than normal in the early afternoon as well.

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Rising dollar means falling prices on the markets we trade most, and we will use the dollar correlation to make educated decisions using the dollar this morning.

Crude Oil Futures are looking for answers this morning…which way do we go from here?  Crude Oil is trading below the lows of the price bull price channel (pink trend lines) around the BMT and in a sideways range.  In my opinion, the market this morning is looking for clues for direction, unsure if it will keep dropping to new lows, or will it go back up to 100.00 again?

The key today will be to avoid trading around the 98.50-98.35 area which is that sloppy trend line from earlier this week, and trade using this recent sideways range.  Sell the highs and buy the lows of this range until we see some personality that pushes price higher or lower this morning.  If we make new lows im buying at support as price drops, then selling retracements as support becomes resistance, and if we make new highs we have a lot of resistance overhead that will make trading more challenging, so we will be very selective if we see price above 98.32.

Gold Futures are looking very similar this morning, bull channel with a sideways range at the new all-time highs.  We know why gold is sloppy, traders waiting for this debt ceiling announcement, and the highest percentage trades today on gold will be buying at support when price drops, or buying pullbacks (carefully) at new highs.  We know the all-time highs are a very tough level to trade, so beware buying new all time highs, I would prefer to wait for the pullback, or wait for price to drop down to 09.1, 07.3, 85.5, 83.3, 81.0 support levels.

Russell Futures this morning are trading lower now inside of two bearish price channels.  The short term bear channel in pink you can see we are trading at the lows, with major support levels below us at 790.6, 79.0, 70.3.  This bear channel tells us to keep selling retracements with new lower lows, however, this short term bear channel lows may cause price to stall a little.  My plan of attack will be to buy at these major support levels, including the channel lows around 798.0 and if we break these major support levels then I will sell retracements as support becomes resistance.

Euro Futures this morning are trading right in the middle of the narrow price wedge, around the big round number 4300 and the BMT, which are concerns this market may be sitting here looking for clues from the debt ceiling vote today here in the US.  We can see a short term bull price channel in pink trend lines, but the reality is the narrow price wedge is a concern, so look to avoid the middle of the wedge, and focus on selling the highs around 1.4400 and buying the lows around 1.4200 inside this wedge, with the higher percentage trades coming to the LONG side because of the bull price channel structure.  We can see plenty of support below us to buy as price drops, 4115, 4085, 3990, 3920, 3815 all make excellent opportunities to buy considering this bullish channel we are in.  If price rises up we will sell resistance at 4515, 4547, 4654.