Weekly Market Recap – December 9, 2022

OPEC Plus announced that oil production would remain unchanged. Triple A published its weekly at-the-pump gasoline prices at $3.33 per gallon, lower than it was a year ago at $3.34. Ukraine unleashed several long-distance drone attacks, some reaching 300 miles into Russia, and hitting two military installations. Russian drone attacks have left 1.5 million without power in and around the port city of Odessa. German intelligence authorities thwarted an attempted coup by right-wing extremists whose plan was to execute Chancellor Olaf Scholz and install a prince descended from German nobility. Raphael Warnock won the runoff midterm election against Herschel Walker for his US Senate seat for Georgia.

Monthly economic statistics, compared with prior values were as follows: factory orders +1.0% vs. +0.3%, balance of trade (deficit) -$78.2 billion vs. -$74.1 billion, consumer credit $27 billion vs. $26 billion, producer price index (final demand) unchanged at +0.3%, and wholesale inventories (revision) +0.5% vs. +0.4%. Quarterly reports for Q3 vs. Q2 levels were: productivity (revision) +0.8% vs. +0.3%, unit labor costs (revision) +2.4% vs. +3.5%, real household wealth -3.1% vs. -21.6%, and real domestic nonfinancial debt growth +2.9% vs. -0.6%. Regarding weekly stats, there were 230,000 initial jobless claims vs. 225,000 the week before, and continuing unemployment claims were 1.67 million vs. 1.61 million.

Led by plummeting tech stocks, market indices fell in step with the NASDAQ Composite which closed at 11,004.62 (-4.0%). The DJIA ended the week at 33,476.46 (-2.8%) and the S&P 500 finished at 3,934.38 (-3.4%). Volatility surged 19.8%, as measured by CBOE’s VIX, marking 22.83 at settlement. In currencies, USD Index futures inched up 0.3%, ending at 104.799 on Friday. Commodities in the S&P GSCI futures portfolio declined by 6.4%, pushing the index down to 572.44 at the week’s end.

Most of the metal futures we track in this recap moved higher. The final prices and corresponding percentage movements were: gold at $1,810.70 (+0.1%), silver at $23.717 (+2.0%), platinum at $1,036.20 (+0.9%), palladium at $1,968.80 (+3.6%), copper at $3.8785 (+0.7%), and aluminum at $2,480.50 per metric ton (-2.6%).

In the energy markets we follow, all but one of the products tumbled all week. The one in the black was ICE Dutch TTF gas, rising 2.6% to €139.113 per MwH. The closing levels and percentage increases of the five that dropped were: WTI crude oil at $71.02 per barrel (-11.2%), Brent crude at $76.10 (-11.1%), heating oil at $2.7937 per gallon (-11.8%), RBOB gasoline at $2.0561 (-9.8%), and NYMEX natural gas eased down to $6.245 per MMBtu (-0.6%).

As for the agricultural commodities on our radar, the bears dominated the bulls. Friday settlement results for the contracts we monitor in this category were: soybeans at $14.88¼ (+2.9%), corn at $6.44 (-0.3%), wheat at $7.34¼ (-3.5%), coffee at $1.5815 (-2.7%), sugar at 19.60¢ (+0.6%), cocoa at $2,504 (-1.3%), cotton at 80.95¢ (-2.7%), live cattle at 155.550 (-0.2%) and lean hogs at 84.000 (-7.1%).

Futures Referenced in Market Recap

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