Weekly Market Recap – May 10th, 2019

In the Markets

Equity markets were rocked by the return of tariff discussions to the center stage. The U.S. raised tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion in Chinese imports, with President Trump promising another 25% tariff on $350 billion worth of imports. China promised retaliation, escalating tensions and marking the end of the tariff truce set back on December 1st, 2018. Protectionist rhetoric made an abrupt return as negotiations between the economic superpowers began to show cracks. The Dow Jones fell 2.1% on the grim trade news, while the S&P 500 dropped 2.2%, and the NASDAQ fell 3.0%.

Crude performance was muted on the week, with both WTI and Brent futures moving less than half a percentage point. The U.S. increased the economic pressure on Iran this week, ending exemptions for countries to purchase Iranian oil. WTI fell 0.45%, while Brent dropped 0.32%. Oil products experienced a more significant fall, with heating oil down 0.95%, and gasoline posting the worst performance in the sector, down 1.85%. Natural Gas was up 2.03% through Friday.

Gold led precious metals, gaining half a percent on the week. Silver and platinum, however, were not as fortunate, as silver fell 1.21% and platinum lost 0.79%. Copper also dropped, marking 4 straight weeks of losses as the red metal lost 1.52%.

With potential retaliatory tariffs coming from China, combined with a WASDE report showing abundant inventories, agricultural commodities fell across the board this week. Soybeans dropped 3.89%, wheat fell 3.05%, and corn plummeted 5.65% on the week. Sugar also dropped 2.41% on the week, while coffee approached year lows, down 2.9% on the week. Lean hogs continued their slow pullback, down another 1.87%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Eduardo Ramos navigated the turbulent market news, maintaining his lead with a net return of 227.6%. Durai Ramasamy kept the same position and return from the week prior, remaining in second place with a net return of 134.9%. Holly Springs Pharmacy returned to the top 5, climbing back into third place with a net return of 83.2%. Takumaru Sakakibara made an appearance on the top 5 this week, closing in fourth place at a 74.7% net return, with the top 5 rounded out by Fabien Fischer’s net return of 62.5%.

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.