Weekly Market Recap – November 23rd, 2018

In the Markets

On a shortened week, with the U.S. celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, equity markets took another large hit, with both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 slipping into the red for year to date returns after the Dow fell 4.4%, and the S&P fell 3.8%. The NASDAQ also dipped on the week, falling 4.3%. With Black Friday marking the beginning of winter retail, the major indices have taken a recent bearish turn, including the worst Thanksgiving-week performance in seven years.

While equity markets suffered, the big story of the week was plunging crude prices. WTI and Brent futures both posted double digit losses, with WTI down 11.59% and Brent falling 11.93%. No single catalyst stood above the rest with regards to the steep decline, with a plethora of worries including weakness in equities, geopolitical concerns, and softening demand combined with oversupply. Crude products also fell, with gasoline futures down 12.45% and heating oil dropping 9.92%. Natural Gas cooled off, but still finished the week positive, up 0.82%.

Eyes will be on Buenos Aires, Argentina as the G20 summit to be held on November 30th-December 1st may have substantial implications on global markets. Center stage will be the sit-down between U.S. President Trump, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as the two economic powers look to reach consensus amidst trade disputes and tensions.

A strong USD continued to weigh on commodities, with grains and softs seeing losses across the board. Corn fell 1.58%, wheat dropped 1.38%, and soybeans lost 1.26%. Sugar decreased 1.73%, while coffee and cocoa lead the way in terms of losses in softs, down 4.6% and 4.93% respectively.

A top positive performer in commodities was lumber, which gained 3.1% on the week, while copper dropped 1.23%. Silver fell 0.85%, while gold finished nearly flat, moving up 0.02%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Petra Ilona Zacek extended her lead to 31 straight days atop the leaderboard, finishing the shortened week at 256.8% net return. Kurt Sakaeda also broke away from the pack this week, showing strong gains on the week ending with a net return of 181.81%.

Paul Skarp ended the week in 3rd place with a net return of 81.15%, followed by Ryan Alderson and Archie Ma, who sat within a quarter point of one another. Ryan took 4th at 69.29%, and Archie Ma rounded out the top 5 at 69.04%.

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.