Weekly Market Recap – August 31st, 2018

In the Markets

On Monday the U.S. and Mexico reached a bilateral trade deal as former NAFTA members have turned to separate trade discussions. Similar negotiations between the U.S. and Canada did not reach an agreement by weeks end, but plan on resuming talks in September. The trade news sent U.S. equities climbing higher, with the S&P 500 returning to all-time-high territory, up 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.7%. The NASDAQ was the best performer of the big three indices, posting a 2.1% gain.

Oil continued its increase from last week, with WTI futures climbing 1.57% through the last week of August, and Brent rising 2.08%. Precious metals, however, fell on the week, with gold down 0.54%, silver down 2.27%, and platinum down 0.29%.

Copper fell 1.37% on the week, and soybeans fell another 1.37%. Grains rebounded last week’s steep drop, with corn climbing 0.62% and wheat gaining 1.96%.

As the summer winds down, commodities markets will continue to eye the trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, as the U.S. will look to move forward on the planned tariffs on $200 billion worth of exports.

World Cup Trading Championships

The top three showed little movement last week, as Jan Smolen remained in first place with a net return of 142.3%, followed by Paul Skarp at 116.5%, and Kurt Sakaeda at 89.1%. All three traders climbed to start the week, before falling slightly going into the three day weekend.

The final two spots shuffled between Fabian Fischer, Petra Ilona Zacek, and Graeme Adams, all remaining within 5% of one another. Fischer ended on top with a net return of 55.5%, followed by Adams at 51.6%.

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.