Weekly Market Recap – February 14, 2020
In the Markets
US equities continued to shrug off symptoms of the Coronavirus outbreak in China. The major indices strung together their second straight week of gains, with the tech heavy NASDAQ leading the charge via a 2.2% increase. The S&P 500 gained 1.6% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1%. Valentine’s Day brought the S&P 500 to a new closing high of 3,380.16 leading into the US’s 3-day weekend.
After five straight weeks of losses, crude oil finally rebounded, despite achieving a record production level of 13 million barrels per day. Optimism surrounding an expected OPEC production cut potentially contributed to WTI crude futures’ gain of 3.44% and Brent’s 5.23% gain. Gasoline and heating oil futures also increased, up 3.9% and 3.34% respectively. Natural gas broke from the rest of the energy sector, falling 1.13% on the week.
Gold, silver, and platinum all posted minimal moves on the week, failing to move a percentage point in any direction. Gold futures moved up 0.9%, while silver rose 0.24% and platinum fell 0.28%. Copper’s gains were more substantial, up 1.8% amidst coronavirus fears, while palladium vaulted above $2300/t oz with a 5.54% gain.
Soybean futures gained 1.16% on the week, while corn and wheat both fell, down 1.5% and 2.6% respectively. Coffee advanced 10.93%, while sugar finished with just a 0.94% gain, and milk futures fell 0.41%. Lean hogs dropped an additional 2.1% on the week.
World Cup Trading Championships
Jeffrey Ruff held onto the lead position in the 2020 World Cup Trading Championships, finishing Friday with a net return of 60.8%. Fabien Fischer also maintained second place on the week, with a net return of 50.9%, but third place went to a new face: Andrei Balanescu and his 47.2% net return. Just 2% behind Andrei was Allen Swiontek and his 45.2% net return. The entire leaderboard finished within 16.3% of one another, as Kevin McCormick rounded out the top five at 44.5%, less than a single percentage point behind Allen.
In the Global Cup, Maxim Schulz, who was absent from the leaderboard just a week prior, vaulted back into the top five to secure first place behind a 108.7% net return. Wayne Wan managed to keep second place at a 103.6% net return, followed by Jan Smolen’s 74.3% net return. Archie Ma finished just 1.1% behind Smolen to take fourth place with a net return of 73.2%, while Stefan Seibert took fifth place with a 57.1% net return.
Trading futures and forex involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. World Cup Championship (WCC ) accounts do not necessarily represent all the trading accounts controlled by a given competitor. WCC competitors may control accounts that produce results substantially different than the results achieved in their WCC accounts. WCC entrants may trade more than one account in the competition. CME Group is the trademark of CME Group, Inc. The Globe logo is a trademark of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.