Weekly Market Recap – October 26th, 2018

In the Markets

Last week’s calm proved to merely be the eye of the storm, as a second wave of corrections rocked equity markets. Volatility soared as the Dow Jones fell 3%, the NASDAQ dropped 3.8%, and the S&P descended 3.9% on the week. This decline occurred despite reports showing that U.S. GDP grew at 3.5% in the third quarter, and despite corporate earnings up 20% from last year for the third quarter.

A strengthening USD, rising interest rates, and numerous geopolitical concerns are potentially at play as prices continue to fall. With slowdowns in China and other foreign markets, tariff worries, and political and diplomatic uncertainty, it seems that earnings growth was not strong enough to quell investor fears.

In energy, it appeared as if Saudi Arabia’s long held production cap on crude oil may come at an end amidst continued allegations regarding Saudi involvement in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. With a potential increase in crude oil supply from one of the world’s leading oil producers on the horizon, prices of both Brent and WTI futures dropped, down 2.62% and 2.44% respectively.

Heating oil futures remained steady, while gasoline futures dropped 5.14%. Natural gas, after two weeks of gains, fell 2% on the week.

Soybeans and wheat both fell, with soybean futures falling 1.37%, and wheat dropping 1.85%, while corn rebounded slightly, up 0.2%. Cocoa gained 4.12%, while coffee and sugar both fell from their large gains, down 2.01% and 0.36% respectively.

Copper fell 1.33%, and lumber futures plummeted 5.58%. Iron ore, however, gained 4.33% on the week. Gold posted narrow gains, up 0.63%, joined by silver futures which climbed 0.34%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Petra Ilona Zacek held onto her lead through the week, finishing with a net return of 128.9%. Paul Skarp closed the gap to just over 30%, closing Friday at a net return of 97.8% and reclaiming 2nd place.

Jan Smolen held onto 3rd finishing with a net return of 78.5%, while Kurt Sakaeda made a return to the leaderboard, claiming 4th at 63.7%. The top 5 was rounded out with Adrian Koemel, who closed the week with a net return of 60.8%.

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.