Weekly Market Recap – November 30th, 2018

In the Markets

This week U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to take on a more dovish stance, stating that interest rates were closer to neutral. He went on to articulate that the Fed would be data-dependent in its decision making, as opposed to following a preset policy path. This sent equities rebounding, as the Dow Jones climbed 5.2%, the S&P 500 rose 4.8%, and the NASDAQ increased 5.6%. In Argentina, the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day reprieve from the recent trade tensions, which provided another boon to equity markets.

Crude oil avoided its 8th consecutive week of losses in a row, with WTI Futures moving up 1.01%, and Brent Futures remaining relatively flat, up 0.1% on the week. Despite flattening out their losses this week, crude oil still posted its worst monthly decline since October 2008. On December 6th oil ministers of OPEC will gather in Vienna, Austria to discuss the weak environment for the energy commodity. Gasoline rebounded up 1.88%, while heating oil futures dropped 2.18%. Natural Gas returned to strength after taking a relative break the week prior, climbing 7.06% through on the week to end November.

Corn, wheat, and soybeans all posted gains, with corn climbing 2.03%, wheat rising 1.83%, and soybeans gaining 1.56%. Softs saw gains across the board, with the exception of coffee, which fell 3.06%. Cotton gained 2.19%, sugar saw an 2.97% increase, while cocoa stood as the top performer in the group, up 3.82% on the week.

Gold and silver both moved down slightly, losing 0.29% and 1.06% respectively. Platinum saw a more substantial slide than its fellow precious metal futures, down 5.23% on the week.

World Cup Trading Championships

The top 4 at the end of the week remained in the same position as the week prior. Petra Ilona Zacek took 1st again with a net return of 216.3%, followed by Kurt Sakaeda at 153.5%, and Paul Skarp in 3rd at 91%. Ryan Alderson stayed on Skarp’s heels, finishing in 4th with a net return of 87.6%. Adrian Koemel returned to the leaderboard for the first time since mid-November, finishing in 5th with a net return of 57.3%.

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.