Crude oil was the determining factor for market direction all week. It all started four days ago when crude oil traded into negative territory for the first time ever, trading down negative $37.63 a barrel, a decline of some 305%, or $55.90 a barrel. That drove the stock market down early in the week.
However, as crude oil tried to bounce back the rest of the week, it failed to wipe out its early week losses, but it wasn't enough to end the week in the green for crude oil or stocks for that matter.
Crude oil ended the week down -31% trading at roughly $17 a barrel. As for the stock market, the DOW was down -2.5%, and the S&P 500 more than -1%. The NASDAQ was able to stay above the -1% loss, just barely finishing down -0.8% for the week. This week's loss was Wall Street's first weekly decline in the last three weeks.
On the other side was gold, the U.S. dollar, and Bitcoin, which were all able to post positive weeks. Gold had a weekly gain of +2.7%, the dollar managed to gain +.64%, and Bitcoin continues to fight to keep its head above water with a weekly increase of +3.8%.
Key Levels To Watch Next Week:
- S&P 500 (CME:SP500): 2,574.57
- Dow (INDEX:DJI): 21.693.63
- NASDAQ (NASDAQ:COMP): 7,617.79
- U.S. Dollar (ICE:DX): 98.81
- Gold (NYMEX:GC.M20): 1,730.00
- Crude Oil (NYMEX:CL.M20): 13.35
- Bitcoin (BITCOIN:BITSTAMPUSD): 6,472.67
Every Success,
Jeremy Lutz
INO.com and MarketClub.com
