Weekly Market Recap – May 17th, 2019

In the Markets

China increased the tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. imports from a range of 5-10% to 5-25% as a response to recent U.S. tariffs. The move was announced on Monday with a June 1st start date. President Trump responded on Wednesday with an executive order aiming to secure U.S. telecommunications networks and technologies against “foreign adversaries” posing threats to national security. While neither China nor China’s Huawei, one of the world’s largest smartphone suppliers, were explicitly named in the order, Google quickly responded by suspending business with the Chinese telecommunications giant.

The S&P 500 took an up and down ride on the slurry of trade news. To open on Monday, the index fell 2.41%. It rallied through Thursday, up 2.29% from Monday’s close on its way to closing flat on the week. This rebound, however, was rooted in investor sentiment surrounding progress in American-Chinese trade negotiations after the weeks’ tumultuous start. Reports indicated that these talks stalled out by Friday, sending the S&P 500 back down, netting a 0.76% loss on the week. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq also fell, down 0.7% and 1.3% respectively.

Both WTI and Brent futures gained on the week amid rising tensions in the Middle East. WTI crude climbed 1.78% while Brent advanced 2.25%. Oil products followed suit, with heating oil gaining 2.2%, and gasoline leading the sector with a 2.93% increase. Natural Gas cooled off from the previous week’s gains, ticking up just 0.46%.

Agricultural commodities featured some of the largest gains in commodities. Corn exploded 11.9%, while wheat kept pace up 9.13%. Soybeans were on a similar trajectory, up nearly 4% through Thursday, but a Friday pullback coincided with hindered trade negotiations, resulting in a net weekly gain of just 1.56%. Lean Hogs futures, whose gains had subsided since April’s swine flu outbreak, once again climbed, gaining 10.3% on the week and breaking the $92/lb. mark.

Gold closed Monday above the $1300 level, up 1.23%. Losses the remainder of the week, however, netted a drop of 0.73% on the week. Silver and platinum fared even worse, with silver dropping 2.57%, and platinum futures plummeting 5.55%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Durai Ramasamy had managed to take the lead on individual trading days mid-week, but topping the standings through a Friday close had proved elusive, until last week. With a net return of 224.1%, Durai closed the week in first place. Eduardo Ramos dropped to second place, but remains on Durai’s heels with a net return of 207.1%. Third place went to Holger Groechel with a net return of 83.2%, followed by Holly Springs Pharmacy’s 73.6%. Making an appearance on the top 5, and sitting just 0.4% behind 4th place, was 2 time World Cup Trading Champion (one Forex and one Futures victory in 2018 and 2016 respectively) was Artur Teregulov, with a net return of 73.2%.

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.