The Energy Crisis and Volatility See Natural Gas and VIX the Best Performing Futures in January

Futures and commodities had a volatile start to 2022. January was about the energy crisis and interest rates and inflation. This pattern accelerated after the Fed minutes of the December FOMC took hold. This was borne out by the best performing futures being natural gas, VIX and Palladium. Energy was five of the highest gains for the month. The worse were lumber, ethanol and the major stock market indices.

CBOE Floor via CBOE

For the month

  • S&P and Nasdaq have their worst month since March 2020
  • Nasdaq has its worst January since 2008
  • S&P and Nasdaq have their best 2-day gain since November 2020
  • Tesla fell 11% in January
  • Amazon fell 10%.
  • Dow, -3.32%. The Dow was down -8.77% at the month’s low
  • S&P -5.3%. The S&P was down -11.4% at the month’s low
  • Nasdaq -8.98%. The Nasdaq was down -16.3% at the month’s low
  • Russell 2000, -9.8%. It was down -15.34% at the month’s low


 Sources: Finviz, TC

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