Weekly Market Recap – October 11th, 2019

In the Markets

The week began with yet another batch of perceived bad news on the trade front, with 28 additional Chinese companies blacklisted. This bars U.S. companies without a specific license from doing business with any entities listed. The development sent the S&P 500 down 2% through Tuesday’s close as investors feared the blacklisting having negative ramifications on planned talks between U.S. and Chinese officials at week’s end. However, the attitude shifted in the latter half of the week, with reports from those trade negotiations of a partial deal. This was punctuated by the Trump administration suspending the tariff increase from 25% to 30%. The increase was set to go into effect on Tuesday, affecting $250 billion in Chinese goods.

There is still work to be done, however, with the state-controlled news outlet China Daily suggesting to the two nations that “the Champagne should probably be kept on ice.” Regardless of the uncertainties still surrounding these tentative trade relations, equity markets rebounded on Thursday and Friday. From Tuesday’s close, the S&P 500 gained 2.67%, marking a 0.62% net gain on the week. The Dow Jones and NASDAQ also posted gains, both up 0.9%.

Tehran posted photos from Friday, October 11th of an Iranian Sabiti tanker with two large holes in its hull, alleging a missile strike by an unknown assailant. With tensions continuing to escalate in the oil rich Middle East, crude prices climbed on the week. WTI futures gained 3.58% and Brent futures climbed 3.67%. Crude products followed suit, with gasoline gaining 4.16% and heating oil posting a 3.33% increase. Natural gas, however, dropped for the fourth week in a row, losing an additional 8.87% on the week.

Precious metals were a story of two halves, with the old and new diverging in performance. The old guard, gold and silver, both fell on the week. Silver lost 0.46%, while gold slid 1.6% on the week. On the other hand, both platinum and palladium shone like new metal, gaining 1.76% and 1.96% respectively. Copper also gained on the week, in part due to potential links with the U.S-China trade negotiations, up 2.58% on the week.

Soybeans, corn, and wheat all posted gains together for the third week in a row. Soybeans posted a 2.03% gain on the week, while corn and wheat finished with higher gains; corn rose 3.38% and wheat climbed 3.82%. Milk gained 1.8%: however, both sugar and coffee fell. Sugar lost 2.74%, as coffee fell 5.35%.

World Cup Trading Championships

Durai Ramasamy again closed the week in first place of the World Cup Trading Championships, extending the streak as the leading net return grew to 222.9%. Sadanand Kalasabail climbed from fourth place into second, growing his net return to 132.6%. Fabian Fischer held onto third place with a 125.4% net return, followed by Ryan Alderson’s 118.1% net return. The top 5 was rounded out by Takumaru Sakakibara and his 102.2% net return.

Wayne Wan continued his lead over the Global Cup field with a 193.8% net return. Wayne was followed by Michael Cook, who’s Global Cup strategy joined World Cup Advisor last week, whose Championship account remained in second place with a 130.1% net return. Stefan Seibert’s 92.4% net return was enough for third place. Jan Smolen jumped over Maxim Schulz, climbing to an 89.2% net return which was good enough for fourth place, besting Maxim’s 72.7% net return, which retained fifth place.

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.

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