In a year marked by a pandemic, a Presidential election and other major market-moving events, it's no surprise that OpenMarkets readers and viewers clicked most on the stories surrounding those events.
As we enter a new year, many of the questions raised in the stories from months ago are still unresolved. From economic indicators to silver to soybeans, readers sought out our stories on diverse markets affected by unprecedented events. These are the top five most viewed:
In June, a panel of traders and market analysts gathered for our OpenMarkets Roundtable series to discuss the indicators they believe could tell when the U.S. economy is on the rebound. The opening sentence sets the scene of the time: "Over the last three months we have seen the quickest pivot from economic prosperity to calamity in our nation’s history." While some indicators have given signs of life to the economy, many of the same questions posed in June remain.
In October, another OpenMarkets Roundtable discussion focused on the rise of gold in 2020, up about 30% on the year at the time. Gold's climb ran parallel to that of equity indexes, an unusual trend in an unusual year. Jim Iuorio, Jack Bouroudjian and Erik Norland discussed why gold had a year of price increases and what it could mean for the U.S. dollar.
At the end of December, silver prices sat more than 100% above their lows in March. In July, Gregor Spilker wrote about the factors behind surging silver markets, including the demand for green energy materials and the affect of potentially higher inflation.
Cushing, Oklahoma serves as the physical delivery point for the WTI crude oil futures contract. In August, Dan Brusstar and Russell Karas wrote about the major storage hub and how it affects global oil fundamentals. After the economic downturn in Spring 2020, drawdowns at Cushing began to increase, a sign that oil demand was rising and the economy could potentially begin growing again.
Effects from U.S. trade tensions with China continued to echo in some markets in 2020. Soybeans were one of the most visible examples. In July, Alison Coughlin covered how soybean production and exports from Brazil have grown in recent years and surpassed exports from the United States, and what this could mean for future U.S. production.
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