A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions, control creation, and verify transactions. The first such cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was introduced in 2009. In 2017, the exchanges launched a Bitcoin futures contract. The CBOE contract launched on Sunday, December 10, while the CME contract launched on Monday, December 18.
Market Spotlight: Cotton
Cotton is a natural vegetable fiber that comes from small trees and shrubs of a genus belonging to the mallow family, one of which is the common American Upland cotton plant.
Market Spotlight: Lumber
Humans have utilized lumber for construction for thousands of years, but due to the heaviness of timber and the manual methods of harvesting, large-scale lumbering didn’t occur until the mechanical advances of the Industrial Revolution.
Market Spotlight: Crude Oil
Perhaps the most controversial debate of our age is the amount of oil we have left to pump from the earth. Some speculate as many as hundreds of years, while others say we may experience an output shortage as early as 2015.
Market Spotlight: Kansas City Wheat
If it had not been for Wheat, human beings may never have socially and culturally developed as cosmopolitan as we have. Wheat was the first crop to be cultivated on a grand scale and stored long-term, enabling the start of city-based societies and the dawning of civilization.
Market Spotlight: Canola
Canola is a genetic variation of rapeseed developed by Canadian plant breeders specifically for its nutritional qualities and its low level of saturated fat. The term Canola is a contraction of “Canadian oil.”
Market Spotlight: Mini Dow Jones
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is often viewed as a strong indicator of the success of the U.S. stock market and the U.S. economy overall. The DJIA represents nine economic sectors including financial services, technology, retail, entertainment and consumer goods. The DJIA is one of the most widely quoted measures of the U.S. stock market due to its extremely high correlation to broader U.S. indexes, such as the S&P 500.
Market Spotlight: RBOB Gasoline
Gasoline is a complex mixture of hundreds of lighter liquid hydrocarbons and is used chiefly as a fuel for internal-combustion engines. Petroleum crude, or crude oil, is still the most economical source of gasoline with refineries turning more than half of every barrel of crude oil into gasoline.
Market Spotlight: Soybean Meal
Soybean Meal is produced through processing and separating Soybeans into oil and meal components. By weight, Soybean Meal accounts for about 35% of the weight of raw Soybeans (at 13% moisture). If the Soybeans are of particularly good quality, then the processor can get more meal weight by including more hulls in the meal while still meeting the 48% protein minimum.
Market Spotlight: E-mini NASDAQ
The NASDAQ-100 Index represents the largest non-financial U.S. and international issues listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market based on market capitalization. Index holdings represent companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail and wholesale trade, and biotechnology.