Weekly Market Recap – August 17th, 2018
In the Markets
After a breakdown in discussions two months ago shifting the focus to retaliatory tariffs, U.S. and China trade negotiations reopened last week. Reported meetings between low-level officials are setting up a scheduled meeting between President Trump and President Xi in November. Additionally, after inducing panic surrounding the possibility of a financial crisis, the Turkish Lira rebounded, climbing back 6.1% on the week after sliding to a new all-time low against the dollar on Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1.4% on this batch of news, while the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, and the tech heavy NASDAQ dropped 0.3%.
The Escondida copper mine in Chile avoided a strike as union representatives signed a contract on Friday. With the world’s largest copper mine avoiding paralysis, copper futures prices plummeted 4.14% as the globe avoids potential supply shortage.
Crude oil dropped this week, with WTI falling 2.76% and Brent futures down 1.47%. Gasoline and heating oil futures also both dropped on the week, down 2.27% and 2.15% respectively.
Grains rallied this week, with wheat climbing 2.51%, and corn rising 1.88%. Soybeans posted a similar performance, rising 3.6%. Precious metals, on the other hand, all faced a bearish week, with gold falling 2.85%, silver dropping 4.34%, and platinum falling sharply 6.3%.
World Cup Trading Championships
Paul Skarp continued his rebound back into the top of the leaderboard, completing his rally by returning to first place on Wednesday for the first time since May 21st. After conceding first place for the 15th and 16th, Jan Smolen took back the top spot to close the week, ending Friday at 129%. Paul Skarp maintained his rally, however, finishing the week in second place at a net return of 127.5%, only 1.5% behind Smolen.
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.