Weekly Market Recap – December 20th, 2019

As 2019 comes to a close, Robbins Trading Company is excited to announce the 37th annual World Cup Trading Championships. The 2020 competition begins on January 1st, 2020 and runs through December 31st 2020.

In the Markets

With just a week left in an already historic 2019, it appears Santa had one last gift for bullish investors this week as US equities achieved new milestones. The S&P 500 exceeded the 3200 mark with a gain of 1.7%, bringing the YTD gains to 28.5%. The Dow Jones also increased, up 1.2%, and the NASDAQ advanced 2.2%. The smaller Russell 2000 also performed strongly, up 2.1% on the week and 24% on the year.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors finished in the black, as the markets continued to coast off of the recent positive developments, with no significant negative developments cropping up leading into the shortened week. This growth came despite the US moving forward with Articles of Impeachment for President Trump. As the vote shifts to the House of Representatives, it remains to be seen what ripples the political event will cause in the markets.

Crude oil products all posted gains on the week, but it was gasoline that lead the sector with a 2.56% gain, followed by heating oil’s 1.78% gain. Brent futures climbed 1.41% on the week. WTI futures lagged behind, eking out a 0.62% gain. Natural gas rebounded from recent losses with a 1.39% gain on the week.

While everyone wishes for silver and gold, it was silver alone that posted positive results on the week, gaining 1.25% while gold fell 0.02%. Platinum and Palladium both also dropped on the week, losing 1.98% and 4.5% respectively. Possibly due to reverberating effects from the US-China phase one deal, copper gained an additional 0.9% on the week, marking its 5th straight week of gains.

Agricultural commodities posted gains across the board. Wheat rose 1.8%, soybeans advanced 2.32%, and corn skyrocketed by 5.87%. Coffee and sugar also posted gains, up 0.97% and 0.3% respectively, while milk fell 0.21%. Lean hogs posted double digit gains, adding 16.84%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Only a week left of trading remains in the 2019 World Cup Trading Championships. Sadanand Kalasabail held onto first place to close the penultimate week, finishing with a net return of 191.4%. Ryan Alderson closed again in second place with a 166.7% net return, followed by Durai Ramasamy’s 134.6% net return. Fabien Fischer closed the week in fourth place, but sat just 5.5% out of the top three with a net return of 129.1%. Sebastian Baumgaertel joined the leaderboard to close the week, claiming fifth with an 81.1% net return.

Jan Smolen closed Friday with a net return of 202.3%, good enough for first place in the Global Cup. Wayne Wan remained in second place at a 134.4% net return, followed by Maxim Schulz’s 108.5% net return. Archie Ma and Stefan Seibert again closed out the Global Cup top five, this time separated by 3.3%. Archie Ma took fourth at a net return of 94% followed by Stefan Seibert’s fifth-place 90.7% 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. CME Group is the trademark of CME Group, Inc. The Globe logo is a trademark of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.