Weekly Market Recap – June 21st, 2019
In the Markets
In its June meeting, the Fed left interest rates unchanged, sharing that rate cuts are on the horizon. The dovish fed policy, echoed by ECB President Mario Draghi, showed a trend of global rates coming down. In the wake of these financial policy announcements, equity markets rose strongly. The S&P 500 exploded to new intraday highs before returning to 2,950 to close on Friday, still enough for a 2.2% gain on the week. The other major indices followed suit, with the Dow Jones gaining 2.4% and the NASDAQ climbing 3%.
Crude oil also posted strong gains, as tensions between the Iran and U.S. continued to develop. On Wednesday a U.S. drone was downed near the Strait of Hormuz, prompting a call for a retaliatory strike by the U.S., which was called off late Thursday. With rising fears surrounding the possibility of military conflict, WTI Crude futures led the sector gaining 9.37% on the week and Brent crude advanced 5.14%. OPEC postponed its meeting until after the G20 summit, leaving oil markets waiting until July 1-2 for news regarding OPEC’s production policy. Gasoline and heating oil followed crude’s lead, gasoline up 7.13% and heating oil gaining 4.72%, while natural gas ended its recent streak of gains, dropping 8.42% on the week.
Following the recent announcements confirming the Fed’s intentions to cut interest rates, gold gained 4.18% and silver rose 3.29%. Platinum’s gains were much more muted, rising just 0.73%, while palladium was up 2.26%. Copper, whose performance is sometimes linked to the state of U.S.-China trade negotiations, gained 2.74% on the week.
Agricultural commodities were a mixed bag this week. Soybeans edged slightly higher, up 0.74%, while corn and wheat both fell, losing 2.37 and 2.5% respectively. Coffee managed to gain 3.96%, but the markets appeared to choose black coffee this week, as sugar fell 4.16%, and live cattle lost 2.05%.
World Cup Trading Championships
Through the close of Monday, June 24th, Durai Ramasamy and Kurt Sakaeda continued holding the top of the leaderboard. Durai closed with a net return of 223%, followed by Kurt’s 155.8% net return. Eduardo Ramos returned to the top 5 with a net return of 141.7%. Holger Groechel retained a spot on the leaderboard, securing fourth with a net return of 112.9%, while the top 5 was again rounded out by Takumaru Sakakibara’s net return of 102.7%.
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.