The analysis and comments on the market and its behavior will look at the entire two week period of time from my last Weekly published on Dec 22nd (before the Holidays).
January traded it’s pre – expiration low at$3.797 before nearly a dollar rally into expiration ($4.721) and going off the board at $4.687. Settlement was $.263 higher than December and the highest monthly contract settlement since January ’23 at $4.709. When January went to settlement February was offered at $3.986, creating a $.701 discount. February is typically offered at a discount to January, but $.701 is historically a little excessive. A year ago at January expiration Feb was $.234 discount to the expired prompt. Readers will likely recall that the new prompt gapped higher then retreated to close that gap before surging to a January high of $4.369. After volatile trade…that continued through the end of Q1, February ’25 went off the board at $3.535…a little more than a dime discount to January settlement.
