Weekly Market Recap – April 14, 2023

The FBI arrested a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard for leaking classified U.S. military and NATO documents on an online social media platform. Elon Musk said that he has laid off more than 6,000 people at Twitter, approximately 80% of the staff. Historic torrential rains pummeled South Florida; Fort Lauderdale measured its rainiest day ever (26 inches). Headlines termed the downpour a 1-in-1000-year event.

Monthly economic statistics released during the week, compared with the prior month, were as follows: consumer price index +0.1% vs. +0.4%, core CPI +0.4 vs. +0.5, CPI (year-over-year) +5.0% vs. +6.0%, core CPI (year-over-year) +5.6% vs. +5.5%, producer price index -0.5% vs. 0.0%, core PPI +0.1% vs. +0.2%, PPI (year-over-year) +2.7% vs. +4.9%, core PPI (year-over-year) +3.6% vs. +4.5%, retail sales -1.0% vs. -0.2%, retail sales excluding motor vehicles -0.8% vs. 0.0%, industrial production +0.4% vs. +0.2%, capacity utilization rate at 79.8% vs. 79.6%, business inventories +0.2% vs. -0.2%, consumer sentiment index 63.5 vs. 62.0 and wholesale inventories +0.1% vs. -0.6%. Weekly numbers showed initial jobless claims rose to 239,000 from 228,000 and continuing unemployment claims were 1.81 million vs. 1.82 million. There were no significant quarterly reports.

Stock markets drifted just a bit higher with the three indices we track here showing lukewarm movement. The DJIA ended the week at 33,886.47 (+1.2%), the S&P 500 finished at 4,137.64 (+0.8%), and the NASDAQ Composite closed at 12,123.47 (+0.3%). CBOE’s VIX reflected lessening investor anxiety, dropping 7.2% to 17.07 at settlement. In currencies, the USD Index futures eased 0.5% ending at 101.245 on Friday. Commodities in the S&P GSCI futures portfolio increased slightly by 1.1% to 594.89 at the week’s end.

On Thursday (4/13), spot London gold bullion changed hands at $2,046.80 per Troy ounce, surpassing the former record price of $2,034.80 set on August 7, 2020. Although bulls dominated metals markets, gold eased at Friday’s close, as bullion dealers and futures traders alike focused on the record referenced above. The week’s futures results were: gold at $2,015.80 (-0.5%), silver at $25.460 (+1.5%), platinum at $1,054.00 (+3.7%), palladium at $1,496.30 (+2.3%), copper at $4.1065 (+2.3%), and aluminum at $2,385.50 per metric ton (+2.2%).

In the energy sector, mixed performances were seen among the products we tracked. For the week, the final numbers looked like this: WTI crude at $82.52 per barrel (+2.3%), Brent crude at $86.31 (+1.4%), heating oil at $2.6392 per gallon (-0.8%), RBOB gasoline at $2.8359 (+0.8%), NYMEX natural gas at $2.114 per MMBtu (+5.1%), and ICE Dutch gas at €41.149 per MWh (-4.6%).

As for the nine agricultural futures that we monitor, seven increased and two decreased. The gainers were: soybeans at $15.00½ (+0.5%), corn at $6.66¼ (+3.5%), wheat at $6.82½ (+1.0%), coffee at $1.9150 (+5.4%), sugar at 24.10¢ (+2.1%), cocoa at $2,897 (+1.3%) and live cattle at 163.725 (+0.4%). Falling into the red, were: cotton at 82.86¢ (-0.4%) and lean hogs at 86.875 (-1.5%).

Futures Referenced in Market Recap

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