Weekly Market Recap – December 6th, 2019

In the Markets

To start the week the S&P 500 was on a downward trend, losing 1.52% through Tuesday’s close. The rest of the week, however, the S&P 500 gained 1.7%, including a 0.91% gain on Friday thanks to a bullish November employment report. In total, the S&P 500 netted a 0.16% gain on the week, while the Dow Jones and NASDAQ both fell 0.1% on the week.

The November employment report, released on Friday, was chock-full of data that provided a boon to bullish investors. November saw an additional 266,000 nonfarm payroll positions added to the market, bringing 2019’s average to 180,000 per month. This held the unemployment rate at the 50 year low of 3.5%. Additionally, average hourly earnings in the private-sector rose by 7 cents to $23.83.

On December 5th and 6th, officials and representatives from OPEC , as well as other non-member nations, including a substantial Russian delegation, met in Vienna, Austria. After the two day summit, OPEC announced that it would raise its per-day output cut from 1.2 million barrels to 1.7 million barrels. Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister added an additional cut of 400,000 barrels per day by the Saudis. The next meeting to review production levels is set for March 5th-6th of 2020.

The contraction on supply sent crude products on an upward trajectory, including WTI Crude gaining 7.3% on the week, and Brent adding 3.14%. Gasoline and heating oil fell more in line with Brent crude’s performance, gaining 3.16% and 3.9% respectively. Natural gas futures also posted modest gains, making a slight recovery attempt from the prior week’s double digit losses, gaining 2.32% on the week.

In the precious metals sector, palladium broke rank, gaining 2.15% on the week. Platinum, however, finished flat, down just 0.02%, while gold lost 0.52%, and silver slipped 2.98%. Copper managed to gain 2.37% on the week.

In agriculture, soybeans gained 1.42%, but corn lost 1.28% and wheat sunk 3.2% on the week. Coffee gained 4.34%, and that cup of joe was well sweetened with sugar gaining 1.85% on the week. Milk futures, however, dropped 3.98% on the week.

World Cup Trading Championships

With just three weeks of trading left in the 2019 competition, Sadanand Kalasabail remains in the lead, closing Friday with a net return of 247.9%. Ryan Alderson held onto second place, finishing the week at a 193.9% net return. Third and fourth place were separated by just 2.3%: Durai Ramasamy held onto third with a net return of 134.6%, but right on his heels was Fabien Fischer and his 132.3% net return. The top 5 was finished by Eduardo Ramos’s 114.1% net return.

In the Global Cup, as the competitors approach the halfway point, Jan Smolen vaulted into first place by ending Friday’s session at a 224.9%. Wayne Wan fell to second place, closing the week at a net return of 132.9%. Similarly to the World Cup, third and fourth place in the global cup sat on a razor thin margin. Maxim Schulz took third place this week at a 103.6% net return, followed by Archie Ma’s 102.1% net return. Stefan Seibert finished the week in 5th place with an 87.8% net return.

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.