Weekly Summary 8-Apr-2016
This was a rough week for most asset classes. The only exceptions were crude oil, up 5.7% to recover most of last week's losses, the HUI gold stock index, which added 5.6% to the prior week's rally, and the Japanese Yen, which gained 1.4%. The biggest drops were in commodities, with coffee (off 7.3%), palladium (down 5.9%) and copper (dropping 5.7%) leading the way lower.
After JPY, the strongest government-issued currency was the Chinese Yuan (down 0.4%). The weakest were the Canadian Dollar (off 2.9%) and the US Dollar, which fell 2.1%. Bonds also dropped, with the Long Term Treasury Fund TLT (down 0.9%) and the short term bond fund SHY (off 1.9%), but both outperformed USD cash.
Stocks (other than the gold miners) were lower, led by the European STOXX (off 3.7%) and the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500, which fell 3.3% each. Japanese stocks, helped by the strong Yen, dropped the least, down 0.8%.
While crude oil recovered most of last week's losses, the metals gave up far more than they gained last week. Cotton, which had a huge rally last week, held on to most of these gains, closing this week off just 0.7%
Gold stocks continue their rise, but are still at historically low prices, offering a great buying opportunity.
Filed under Bonds, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, Platinum, S&P 500, Stocks, US Dollar by 