Weekly Market Recap – February 22nd, 2019

In the Markets

U.S. equities finished their fourth straight week of gains. The U.S-China trade talks provided positive news, with the two sides reporting unspecified progress towards agreements regarding currency, as well as China’s commitment to obtain $1.2 trillion in U.S. goods. Discussions are still ongoing on the topic of forced technology transfers and other points. President Trump stated that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will most likely continue these conversations in March.

Another boon to the markets came in the form of the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) January minutes from their Wednesday meeting, further underlying the Fed’s intention to be patient in raising interest rates. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both gained 0.6% on the week, marking an 11.6% and 11.4% YTD gain respectively. The NASDAQ gained 0.7%, raising its YTD gains to 13.4%.

Crude oil continued its rebound, with WTI gaining 1.89%, and Brent futures gaining 1.27%. Gasoline futures gained 1.57%, but heating oil’s gains were more muted, up 0.66%. Natural Gas futures continued their gains, up 2.97% on the week.

Wheat saw a deep drop off, falling 3.47%. Corn finished almost flat on the week, moving up 0.13%, while soybeans gained 0.3%. Softs had mixed results, with sugar and cotton futures gaining 2.31% and 1.6% respectively. Coffee dropped 1.62%, and cocoa futures lost 2.18% on the week.

Precious metals performed strongly across the board. Gold gained 0.81%, and silver rose 1.09%. Platinum was the top performer in the sector, gaining 4.83% on the week. Copper was another top performer in commodities, gaining 5.47% on the week. China is the world’s leading copper consumer, providing a potential link between the price of the red metal, and the U.S-China trade negotiations.

World Cup Trading Championships

The top 5 continued their push forward in the shortened week, with Eduardo Ramos finishing atop the leaderboard with a net return of 153.5%. Princely Mathew finished in second place at a net return 65.7%, followed closely by Marko Grcic and his net return of 64.4%. Fabien Fischer’s net return of 51.4% was enough to maintain his 4th place position, while Petra Ilona Zacek again closed the week in 5th, gaining on the week to end with a net return of 36.8%.

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.