Weekly Market Recap – October 5th, 2018
In the Markets
The markets opened with substantial developments as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement was finalized to replace NAFTA with Canada and the U.S. agreeing to terms. While tensions eased between members of North America, they once again grew between the U.S. and China as the pending trade fallout looms over investors.
The September employment report showed 134,000 jobs added on the month, with the unemployment rate dropping to 3.7% as hourly wages increased by 2.8%. U.S. equity markets displayed a lot of volatility, as they reacted to a variety of trade news, sending the market volatility index climbing to end the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished flat on the week, while the S&P 500 dropped 1% and the NASDAQ fell 3.2% on the week, despite having a strong start to the quarter at the beginning of the week.
The yield on the 10-year treasury note reached a seven year high as it surpassed 3.2% this week on the back of an economy that continues to strengthen. This combined with increased wage growth points to further interest rate hikes from the Fed.
With a bullish cocktail of news for the USD, gold futures still showed growth, climbing 0.79% on the week. Silver, on the other hand, saw a 0.43% loss. Palladium also posted a loss, falling 1.46%, while platinum rose 0.26%.
Energy markets furthered their streak of gains, with WTI and Brent crude moving in tandem, up 1.49% and 1.5% respectively. Heating Oil posted a gain as well, up 1.87%, while gasoline finished almost flat, moving up just 0.02%. Natural gas posted another strong week, up 4.49%.
Softs had two of the top performers on the week, with coffee rising 6.34%, while sugar skyrocketed 12.77%. Soybeans climbed 2.78%, corn rose 3.37%, and wheat gained 2.36%.
World Cup Trading Championships
While Jan Smolen continued his first place run into the fourth quarter, the other positions in the top 5 displayed substantial shuffling. Smolen finished with a net return of 213.2%, as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were up for grabs throughout the week as Paul Skarp, Kurt Sakaeda, and Petra Ilona Zacek battled for positioning.
When the dust settled, it was Paul Skarp who regained 2nd place as he closed the gap on Smolen with a net return of 121.3%. Petra, who temporarily climbed as high as second place, finished in 3rd with a net return of 108.3%. Kurt Sakaeda dropped to 4th place with a net return of 77%. Graeme Adams relinquished 5th place during the week to Fabien Fischer and Adrian Koemel, but regained his spot before the week closed out with a 59.2% 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.