Weekly Market Recap – September 20th, 2019
In the Markets
The Fed elected to cut short-term interest rates in their Wednesday meeting, lowering it by 25 basis points (bp). Despite the move, equity markets ended their three week streak of gains, with the prevailing market sentiment already anticipating the rate cut. The Dow Jones fell 1%, the NASDAQ dropped 0.7%, and the S&P 500 lost half a percentage point. Additional bearish news came on Friday when the Chinese delegation cut its White House stay short, hinting at potential breakdowns in trade discussion.
The news out of the Fed’s meeting room that appeared to have the biggest impact was not the decision itself, but the opinion split amongst the officials. The vote was 7-3, with one official dissenting and voting instead for a 50 bp cut, while the other two dissenting voices wanted to keep the federal funds rate unchanged. This division leaves the Fed’s schedule for rate changes unknown moving forward.
On Saturday, September 14th a drone strike was carried out against the Khurais and Abqaiq oilfields in Saudi Arabia. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the act, but in the days since the event U.S. and U.K. officials have placed blame on Iran itself. The strike on the Saudi refineries impacted an estimated 5% of total global oil output, sending crude oil futures skyrocketing to start the week. WTI crude gained 5.91% on the week and Brent crude climbed 6.74%. Gasoline advanced 8.07% and heating oil rose 5.78%. Natural gas ended its streak of gains, however, falling 3.06%.
Gold and silver both climbed on the week, up 1.04% and 1.59% respectively. Platinum, however, fell slightly, losing 0.35%, while palladium climbed 1.04%. Copper fell 3.44% on the week with China-U.S. trade negotiations hitting yet another speed bump.
Soybeans also fell on the week, down 1.77%. Wheat finished nearly flat on the week, up 0.39%. Corn was a top performer in agricultural commodities, gaining 4.29%. The recent coffee trend reversed this week, with coffee and milk losing on the week while sugar posted gains. Coffee fell 3.98%, milk dropped 0.27%, while sugar gained 1.84%.
World Cup Trading Championships
Durai Ramasamy took first place, closing at a net return of 216.9%. Eduardo Ramos finished the week in second place, posting a net return of 182.3%. Holger Groechel took third place at a 135.9% net return, followed closely by Sadanand Kalasabail’s 132.2% net return. The top five was rounded out by Fabien Fischer who finished the week at a net return of 120%.
The Global Cup Derivatives Trading Championship has been running since June 1st, and the top five this week in the lightweight division featured four traders exceeding a 100% net return. Wayne Wan took first at a 129.3% net return, while Eduardo Ramos claimed second place on both leaderboards with his 118.9% net return. Jan Smolen finished the week in third at a 100.9% net return, followed closely by Michael Cook’s 100.5% net return. Maxim Schulz took the last spot on the Global Cup leaderboard with a 72.8% net return.
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.