Weekly Market Recap – September 14th, 2018
In the Markets
Despite recent tensions regarding tariffs, the major indices rebounded last week as the U.S. and China have agreed to a new round of trade negotiations. On this news, as well as strong performance from the tech sector, the Dow Jones rose 0.9%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.2%, and the NASDAQ increased by 1.4%.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August were both released this week, showing weaker inflation, quelling fears that the Fed would increase interest rates at a more aggressive rate. The Fed is still expected to raise rates by 25 basis points at the end of September. The European Central Bank, and the Bank of England both kept their interest rates unchanged at policy meetings last week, while the Turkish central bank increased its rates to 24% in an attempt to stabilize the Lira.
The inverse movement that began the week prior between WTI and Brent crude futures continued, but flipped, as WTI Crude rose 1.83% through the 14th, and Brent crude fell 2.35%. Gasoline futures finished almost even on the week, only moving up 0.01%, as hurricane Florence hit the Carolina coast. Heating oil futures dropped 0.41% on the week.
The USDA released the September WASDE report, as corn dropped sharply 4.16%, and soybeans fell 1.6%. CBOT wheat stopped its steep slide down, moving up 0.05%.
USD index futures fell 0.46%, sending gold up slightly, by 0.06%. Platinum rose more sharply, up 2.33%, while silver fell 0.2%.
World Cup Trading Championships
Jan Smolen climbed sharply on the week, up almost 25% to a net return of 178%, his highest total return since June 26th. Paul Skarp managed to hold onto second place again, finishing the week at 105.4%. Kurt Sakaeda made a strong push for second, up 10% on the week through Thursday, before finishing in third at 86.5%.
Petra Ilona Zacek returned to the top 5, and held onto 4th place for the entire week finishing at 57.8%. Graeme Adams had a blip on Wednesday, before being overtaken again by Adrian Koemel, who held 5th place for 4 out of 5 trading days, closing at 51.5%.
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