Weekly Market Recap – October 14, 2022
On Monday, Russia launched a barrage of missile attacks that hit Kyiv as well as ten other Ukrainian cities. According to President Putin, the strikes were in retaliation for the destruction of a section of the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. Tuesday’s report from the IMF downgraded its projection for global economic growth for 2023, warning that policy makers’ actions to address inflation could lead to a worldwide recession. The Social Security Administration announced that next year’s benefit for 70 million Americans would increase by 8.7%.
Monthly economic statistics reported this week, compared with prior releases, were as follows: consumer price index (month to month) +0.4% vs. +0.1%, CPI (year-on-year) +8.2% vs. +8.3%, business inventories +0.8% vs. +0.5%, retail sales 0.0% vs. +0.4% and retail sales excluding motor vehicles +0.1% vs. -0.1%. There were no quarterly figures released. The weekly reports for unemployment numbers showed initial jobless claims rose to 228,000 vs. the prior 219,000. Continuing unemployment claims were unchanged at 1.37 million.
The week’s stock market action was choppy; Thursday morning saw the lowest levels of the year for the three indices in our recap. Then, investors swooped in to end the session with a strong rally, only to be reversed on Friday, causing the end-of-week changes to be mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 29,634.83 (+1.2%), the S&P 500 lost 1.6% to settle at 3,583.07 and the NASDAQ Composite went out at 10,321.39 (-3.1%). The roller coaster effect injected enough volatility to push CBOE’s VIX up to 32.02 (+2.1%). In currencies, the USD returned to its long-term uptrend; USD Index futures closed the week at 113.202 (+0.5%). In the commodity sector, prices sank overall, as per S&P’s GSCI; that portfolio of futures fell to 631.89 (-5.2%).
The precious and industrial groups on our metal futures watch moved in opposite directions. In the precious metals category, settlement prices and weekly percentage decreases were: gold at $1,648.90 (-3.5%), silver at $18.071 (-10.8%), platinum at $894.90 (-2.5%), palladium at $1,997.30 (-8.9%). For the two base metals we track, the results on the upside were: copper at $3.4235 (+1.1%) and aluminum at $2,306.00 (+0.3%).
In energy markets, the futures we watch declined across the board. Closing prices and their respective percentage decreases were as follows: WTI crude at $85.61/bbl (-7.6%), Brent crude at $91.63 (-6.4%), heating oil at $3.9802 per gallon (-1.0%), RBOB gasoline at $2.6309 (-3.8%), NYMEX natural gas at $6.453 per MMBtu (-4.4%), and ICE TTF Dutch gas at €141.997 per MWh (-9.1%).
As for the nine agricultural commodity contracts we cover, the category was mixed with four advancing and five retreating. The gainers were soybeans at $13.83¾ (+1.2%), corn at $6.89¾ (+1.0%), sugar at 18.84¢ (+0.9%) and lean hogs at 82.250 (+6.6%). The products that fell were wheat at $8.59¾ (-2.3%), coffee at $1.9670 (-9.8%), cocoa at $2,377 (-0.8%),
cotton at 83.15¢ (-1.3%) and live cattle, ending at 147.775 with only a slight loss (-0.2%) for the week.
Futures Referenced in Market Recap
Exchange | Commodity | Contract Month |
---|---|---|
CME | Live Cattle | December |
CME | Lean Hogs | December |
CBT | Soybeans | November |
CBT | Corn | December |
CBT | Wheat | December |
ICE | Coffee | December |
ICE | Cocoa | December |
ICE | Sugar | March |
ICE | Cotton | December |
ICE | Brent Crude | December |
ICE | Dutch TTF Gas | November |
ICE | USD Index | December |
NYMEX | WTI Crude | November |
NYMEX | ULSD (Heating Oil) | November |
NYMEX | RBOB (Gasoline) | November |
NYMEX | Natural Gas | November |
NYMEX | Platinum | January |
NYMEX | Palladium | December |
COMEX | Gold | December |
COMEX | Silver | December |
COMEX | Copper | December |
LME | Aluminum | 3 Mo. Forward |
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