Weekly Market Recap – October 4th, 2019
In the Markets
The S&P 500 ended a volatile week losing 0.33%. The major moves began with bearish economic data in the form of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) September report. The report’s Manufacturing Index dropped to its worst point since June 2009, falling to 47.8% from August’s 49.1%. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index also fell from August to September, from 56.4% to 52.6%. Through Wednesday’s close, the S&P had lost 2.5% on the week.
However, a late week rally brought the equity index back to flat as the September employment report showed 136,000 nonfarm payrolls added in the month, as well as upward revisions to August and July employment data. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, its low point since December 1969. Thursday-Friday’s rebound saw the S&P 500 gain 2.23% on its way to that 0.33% drop. The Dow Jones fared slightly worse, losing 0.9%, while the NASDAQ managed to gain 0.5% on the week.
Crude oil markets experienced a second straight week of losses, this one more substantial than the previous. WTI futures lost 5.54% and Brent futures lost 5.72%. Gasoline fell 4.72%, while heating oil managed the best performance of crude products, losing just 2.43%. Natural gas continued its decent, losing 2.16% on the week.
Gold managed to gain 0.43%, although this broke from the trend set by the rest of the precious metals sector. Silver slipped slightly, down 0.15%, as platinum plummeted 4.75% on the week. Copper lost 1.39% and palladium managed just a 0.73% loss.
While several sectors dropped on the week, agricultural commodities managed gains across the board. Soybeans climbed 3.71%, joined by corn’s 3.57% rise. Wheat gained at a slower pace than its counterparts, up 0.84%. Lean hogs continued its see-saw trend of following up a week of gains with a week of losses, falling 4.41%. Coffee finished down 1.88% and milk finished nearly flat, up 0.16%. The markets seemed to have a sweet tooth this week, as sugar exploded, gaining 10.67%.
World Cup Trading Championships
Durai Ramasamy continued to hold onto pole position in the World Cup Trading Championships with a net return of 216%. Fabien Fischer took over second place, climbing over Holger Groechel and Eduardo Ramos to finish the week with a net return of 126.2%. Holger and Eduardo remain on the leaderboard, however, as Holger Groechel took third with a net return of 108.2%. Sadanand Kalasabail followed him in fourth at a net return of 107.3%, followed by Eduardo’s fifth best 103.6% net return.
Wayne Wan and Michael Cook retained their one-two lead over the Global Cup Derivatives Trading Championship field for the lightweight division. Wayne finished in first with a 193.8% net return, followed by Michael’s 124.3% net return. Third place went to Stefan Seibert and his 79.1% net return, followed closely by Maxim Schulz 72.7% net return. The top 5 was rounded out by Jan Smolen with his 55.8% 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.