Weekly Market Recap – February 24, 2023

President Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv to meet with President Zelensky four days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. Vladimir Putin stated he would suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty, which limits the U.S. and Russia to 1,550 nuclear warheads each. Blizzard warnings were issued for more than two million people across the United States this week, canceling or delaying more than 7,600 flights.

Monthly economic statistics reported during the week compared with prior levels were: new home sales 670,000 vs. 625,000, existing home sales 4.00 million vs. 4.03 million, PCE price index +0.6% vs. +0.2%, Core PCE +0.6% vs. +0.4%, PCE (year-over-year) +5.4% vs. +5.3%, Core PCE (year-over-year) +4.7% vs. + 4.6%, consumer spending (nominal) +1.8% vs. -0.1%, personal income (nominal) +0.6% vs. +0 .3%. Weekly labor department reports showed that initial jobless claims fell to 192,000 from 195,000, while continuing unemployment claims dropped to 1.65 million from 1.69 million, the largest decline since December. The revised quarterly GDP rose 2.7% in Q4 vs. +2.9% in Q3.

Stock markets fell steadily throughout the week. For the three indices we track, Friday’s final levels and weekly net percentage losses were: DJIA at 32,816.92 (-3.0%), S&P 500 at 3,970.04 (-2.7%), and the NASDAQ Composite at 11,394.94 (-3.3%). Equities volatility reflected in the CBOE VIX rallied to 21.67 (+8.2%). In currencies, USD Index futures advanced to 105.158 (+1.3%). The commodities sector slipped 0.7% according to the S&P GSCI’s 577.57 close.

All six metals futures we monitor moved to the downside. Settlement prices and weekly percentage decreases were: gold at $1,817.10 (-1.8%), silver at $20.810 (-4.2%), platinum at $907.90 (-1.5%), palladium at $1,377.30 (-7.7%), copper at $3.9520 (-3.8%) and aluminum at $2,335.50 (-2.2%).
On the energy charts, mixed performances were seen among the contracts we follow in this sector. For the week, the final numbers looked like this: NYMEX WTI at $76.32 per barrel (-0.3%), Brent crude oil at $83.16 (+0.2%), heating oil at $2.7962 per gallon (+3.1%), RBOB gasoline at $2.3587 (-2.1%), NYMEX natural gas at $2.548 per MMBtu (+8.3%), and ICE Dutch TTF gas at €51.013 per MWh (+4.0%).

In the Ag futures, the weekly movements for the nine product markets we report were 5 higher and 4 lower. The gainers were: soybeans at $15.29 (+0.1%), coffee at $1.8770(+1.0%), cotton at 84.90¢ (+4.2%), live cattle at 165.375 (+0.4%) and lean hogs at 86.025 (+0.9%) The contracts that fell into the red were: corn at $6.50 (-4.4%), wheat at $7.08¼ (-7.5%), sugar at 19.67¢ (-0.7%), and cocoa at $2,748 (-0.8%).

Futures Referenced in Market Recap

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