Currencies, bonds, and major stock indexes were all lower this week, while commodities were once again mixed. Bucking the equity downtrend, gold stocks were the biggest winner this week, rising 2.6%, while crude oil positively collapsed, falling 11.6%, and "doubling down" on the prior week's 4.8% loss. This still leaves crude just above its long term support around 1 gram/barrel, and closer to its highs than to its lows for 2016 YTD.
The weakest currencies were the Canadian and US Dollars, which dropped 2.4% and 2.3% respectively. The least weak currency was Bitcoin, off 0.2%, followed by the Japanese Yen, which fell 0.3%. Bonds showed a longer time preference this week, with the long term TLT falling 1.1%, while SHY lost 2.1% and USD cash lost 2.3%.
The major stock indexes were all lower, led by the S&P 500, which fell 4.2%. Japan had the least weakness; the Nikkei 225 was off 3.4%. Gold stocks were the exception, as the HUI rose 2.6%.
Silver led the commodity group, rising 1.5% to close at 0.44 grams/ounce. Platinum and copper also rose, gaining 0.8% and 1.0% respectively. This leaves platinum just a hair below 24 grams/oz, still far below the gold parity price of 31.1 grams.
The big action this week was in crude oil, which dropped 11.6% to close at 1.05 grams, almost exactly its average price for the year to date.
Stay tuned next week to see how the US presidential election changes things up in the markets.
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