Weekly Market Recap – October 19th, 2018

In the Markets

After a roller coaster week in U.S. equity markets, the indices stabilized on the week with the Dow Jones up 0.4%, the NASDAQ down 0.6%, and the S&P 500 finishing the week even.  While the S&P 500 finished without a net move, it climbed 2.15% on Tuesday, before falling back during the rest of the week, including a 1.44% decline on Thursday.  As equities move into earnings announcements, the role that individual company forecasts vs macro-economic factors play on the large indices will be seen.

WTI Crude futures fell 2.87%, falling below $70/bbl.  Brent Crude futures also fell, but posted a smaller decline, down 0.81%.  Fallout revolving Saudi Arabia’s alleged involvement in the death of a Saudi journalist could end in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer, cutting supplies.  Heating oil and gasoline both also fell on the week, down 1.09% and 1.64% respectively, while natural gas futures continued their upward momentum, up 2.82% on the week.

Gold posted a 0.55% gain on the week, retaining its recent gains despite U.S. dollar index futures also climbing 0.56% on the week.

Grains and soybeans fell on the week, with corn sliding 1.81%, soybeans falling 1.24%, and wheat dropping 0.48%.

After falling to their low for the decade in September, coffee and sugar futures posted impressive gains. Coffee climbed 4.76%, while sugar was a top performer in commodities climbing 6.27%. Other softs did not match the performance of coffee and sugar, as cocoa rose 0.09%, and cotton fell 0.57%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Petra Ilona Zacek not only held onto her lead, but extended it, closing Friday with a YTD net return of 174.8%. Former leader Jan Smolen managed to remain in 2nd place with a net return of 80%, followed closely by Paul Skarp at 76.9%.

The remaining two spots on the top 5 were again a point of contention, as 5 different traders occupied those two spots throughout the week. Miroslav Gnatovic began the week in the top 5, before being overtaken by Kurt Sakaeda on Wednesday. Adrian Koemel joined them, holding a space on the leaderboard for 8 straight trading days going into Friday. It was newcomer Saik Wai Chang, however, who took over 4th place to close the week, finishing with a net return of 61.8%, followed by Fabien Fischer in 5th with a net return of 60%.

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.