With July’s Stock Challenge now officially behind us, it’s time to crown another champion!
Despite one of the worst-performing months in recent Stock Challenge history, member ‘SuzannaMiller’ managed to navigate to the top of the leaderboard and seal an impressive win with a return of 132.49% – absolutely crushing the competition!
Congratulations on choosing July’s diamond in the rough stock pick, Startech Labs Inc.
Our second-place finisher, member ‘looky1,’ was propelled to the podium on the very last day, swapping positions with July’s mid-month commanding leader in a sudden turn of events.
Just 0.43% behind second-place, member ‘Jimpro63’ takes home bronze after selecting two junior resource exploration companies. Congratulations to this month’s prize winners!
Your silver bullion and Pinnacle Digest gear will be shipped out shortly. For our top three finishers, keep an eye on your inbox for an email from us after the long weekend.
The Final Standings
The Stock Challenge leaderboard reflects how harsh a month July was for contestants. Of the total 458 participants in this month’s contest, only 108, or ~23%, sit in the black – the lowest we’ve seen in 2021, thus far.
A Bad Month for Stocks
This month’s Challenge saw a selection of 586 stocks, yet only 153 reported positive gains. Take a look at the average returns, by exchange, of the stocks selected in this month’s Stock Challenge.
It is not abnormal to see stock prices slip during the summer doldrums. Furthermore, some of the strong earnings results from this month have been overshadowed by inflation, covid fears, and oil prices – all of which impacted the markets in July.
Although the Fed continues to brush off inflation as transitory, June’s annual inflation rate remained above 3% for a third straight month, fostering concerns regarding growth and prices, among other things.
Additionally, the delta variant has raised concerns globally once more. On July 19, Pete Evans of CBC quoted Rory Johnston, the managing director of the investment firm Price Street, as saying,
“There was a general market sell-off related to renewed worries about COVID and delta…”
Furthermore, OPEC’s recent agreement to ramp up oil production by 400,000 barrels per day stirred oil prices and rattled investor sentiment. On July 19, the commodity price dropped ~7.5% to approximately US$66.42. That same day, the Stock Challenge Index (SCI) witnessed its first dip below -10% since the stock market crashed back in March 2020.
Take a look at the SCI below.
Although it was a tough month for Stock Challengers, the SCI could be poised for a rebound, potentially setting up an exciting August Stock Challenge!
Only 24 hours remain until the battle of August begins! If you haven’t secured your stock picks yet, click here to enter for a chance to win some awesome prizes.
