Weekly Summary 25-Mar-2016
This was a good week for currencies, bonds, and most stocks, but mixed for commodities. The best performing asset was Bitcoin, which rose 4.3% – more than making up for last weeks decline. The next best was cotton, which gained 4.0%. The weakest asset classes were gold stocks, off 2.7%, and coffee, which dropped 2.2%.
The strongest government-issued currencies were the US Dollar (up 3.0%) and the Chinese Yuan (which rose 2.8%). Bonds were also strong, with the Long Term Treasury Fund TLT turning in the weeks third-best performance, rising 3.3%. The short term bond fund SHY rose 2.9%, but failed to keep up with USD cash.
Stocks (gold miners aside) were all higher, led by the Nikkei (up 3.1%) and the Dow Jones Industrials, which rose 2.4%. Once again, the Euro STOXX FEZ was the weakest, rising just 0.1%.
The week’s bad news was concentrated in the commodity area. In addition to the drop in coffee, silver fell 1.8% and crude oil was down 1.3%. Cotton was the only really strong commodity, but copper and platinum managed small increases.
Although gold stocks finished the week lower, at 4.4g they are still well above their new support at 4.2g, and I think they represent a good value here.
