Weekly Market Recap – February 28, 2020

In the Markets

While markets had managed to shrug off symptoms of the coronavirus for the most part, the last week of February saw the outbreak bring both equities and commodities to their knees. The rate of new cases may have slowed in China, but reports of the virus’s spread outside of the country prompted the worst equity performance since 2008. Additionally, the CBOE Volatility Index spiked to its highest level since February 2018.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.4% on the week, while the S&P 500 dropped 11.5% and the NASDAQ lost 10.5%. The Russell 2000 also plummeted 12%, as all four indices erased their 2020 year to date gains. The Dow Jones finished February down 11% in 2020, while the NASDAQ closed with a net loss of 4.5%, and the S&P ended Friday down 8.6% in 2020. The Russell 2000 has posted an 11.5% year to date loss.

Crude oil futures also dove into the red: brent crude lost 13.64% on the week, while WTI saw a 16.15% drop. Gasoline also dropped 15.46%, as heating oil and natural gas both fell 11.62% on the week.

Precious metals also fell on the week. Platinum and silver led the way as they both joined the double-digit loss club. Platinum lost 11.3%, and silver fell 11.57%. Gold fell 4.74%, palladium dropped 4.36%. Copper managed to slip just 2.38% during the tumultuous week.

There were a couple exceptions to the weeks myriad of losses, as both soybean and coffee futures posted gains in an otherwise bleak week. Soybeans climbed 0.6% and coffee added 1.15%. The other agricultural commodities did not join them, however, as corn lost 2.79% and wheat lost 4.8%. Looking to sugar for news of something sweet yielded more bad news, as the commodity fell 7.25%, mirrored by lean hogs’ loss of 7.1%. Milk also fell on the week, but only just slightly, losing 0.18%.

World Cup Trading Championships

As market volatility has been on the rise, so too has the trading of recent World Cup Trading Championship® frontrunner Ari Masters, who ended the first two months of the 2020 competition with an astounding 1419.1% net return. Michael O’Keeffe finished in second with a return of 272%, followed by Evgeny Kartashov and a 127.4% net return. Fourth place went to Allen Swiontek at a 105.9% net return, and the top five was rounded out by Jeffrey Ruff at a 88.3% net return.

In the Global Cup, Wayne Wan took first place with a 190.3% net return. Maxim Schulz finished in second at a 120.6% net return, followed by Michael Cook’s 80.5% net return. Jan Smolen claimed fourth place at a 70.6% net return, but Stefan Seibert was right on his heels with a 65% net return, separated by just 5.6%.

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.