Weekly Market Recap – October 12th, 2018

In the Markets

Volatility made a return to equity markets last week, as the three major indices all saw significant moves down, as they posted their largest losses since March. The combination of factors that had been hanging over the markets for some time, including rising interest rates and U.S.-China trade tensions, finally seemed to have an effect on investors, as the declines began on Wednesday and did not stabilize until Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.2%, the S&P 500 dropped 4.1%, and the NASDAQ lost 3.7% on the week.

While the losses were substantial, all three major indices retained their YTD gains. The International Monetary Fund, however, cut its 2018 and 2019 global growth outlook from 3.9% to 3.7% this week, citing numerous trade uncertainties. Chief among these concerns has been the relationship between the U.S. and China, which will look for a potential G-20 summit meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month.

In response to the correction in equities and rising interest rates, gold futures posted 1.36% gains on the week. Silver fell 0.1%, but platinum rose 1.88%.

On news of weakening demand, oil futures finally ended their bullish streak, with WTI crude falling 4.04% and Brent crude dropped 4.34%. Gasoline futures saw a significant decline, falling 6.91%, while heating oil futures fell 2.97%. Natural gas futures remained positive, albeit much cooler than recent growth, up 0.57%.

Softs displayed large upward swings across the board. Cotton climbed 2.98%, and sugar rallied 3.48%, but it was cocoa and coffee futures that posted the largest gains, up 6.72% and 6.98% respectively.
Smaller moves were posted in soybeans and grains, with soybeans down 0.17%, wheat down 0.72%, and corn climbing 1.49%.

World Cup Trading Championships

The WCTC felt the impacts of U.S. equity market declines reverberate throughout the leaderboard, as the top 5 saw the most shifts within one week in the entire year. The rankings remained mostly unchanged through Monday and Tuesday, outside of newcomer Miroslav Gnatovic of Serbia making his first appearance by finishing in 5th on Monday with a net return of 59.7%.

With Wednesday and Thursday brought significant shuffling, as Petra Ilona Zacek took first place for the first time all year, finishing the week at 125.6%, ending Jan Smolen’s 100 day reign atop the leaderboard. Jan Smolen fell to 95.1% on the year, but managed to hold onto second place. Paul Skarp remained in 3rd place with a net return of 91.4%.

Adrian Koemel returned to the top 5, and ended the week in 4th at 59.2%. 5th place was held by Fabien Fischer through Wednesday and Thursday, but it was Archie Ma of Hong Kong who made his first appearance in the top 5, closing the week with a net return of 54.5%.

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.