Weekly Market Recap – September 21st, 2018

In the Markets

The months of promised tariffs against China materialized into reality on Tuesday, as the United States put in place a 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, with a raise to 25% in four months if China does not sit down at the negotiating table. Beijing has announced plans to retaliate with 5-10% tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods, to which President Trump has threatened an additional $267 billion worth of tariffs.

Despite the trade news, equity markets responded positively on Tuesday, continuing through the week as the Dow Jones closed up 2.3%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.8%. Chinese large-cap stocks posted gains on the week as well. The NASDAQ, however, fell 0.3% on the week.

U.S. Dollar Index December futures fell 0.75%, as platinum and silver reacted inversely, climbing 3.88% and 1.53% respectively. Palladium gained for the week, rising 7.67%, while gold futures performed sluggishly, rising only 0.02%.

WTI Crude and Brent Crude both rose this week, with WTI futures rising 2.95% to break $70/bbl, while Brent futures climbed 0.82%. Gasoline rose 2.05% and heating oil rose 0.83%, but natural gas was the top performer in energy, gaining 7.59% on the week.

Soybeans and grains all rose, with corn rising 1.56%, wheat climbing 2%, and soybeans increasing 2.02%.

Copper was another top performer on the week, gaining 7.99% on the week, driven by its largest one-day gain since 2013 on Friday.

World Cup Trading Championships

Jan Smolen remained in first place for the 86th straight trading day, breaking the 200% net return mark as he finished at 200.2%, up over 22% on the week. Paul Skarp held onto second place finishing the week at 107.5%, but hot on his heels was Petra Ilona Zacek, who gained 50% on the week to finish in 3rd place with a net return of 107.3%, bumping Kurt Sakaeda down to 4th.

Sakaeda posted a strong week, finishing at 90.6%. 5th place was retaken by Graeme Adams midweek, who ended with a net return of 56.9%.

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.