Weekly Update 15 Sep 2017

Currencies, bonds and major stock indexes were higher, commodities were mixed, and digital tokens fell hard again this week. The largest losses were in digital tokens, as Ethereum fell 14.2% and Bitcoin dropped 12.1%. The biggest gains were in coffee and crude oil, which added 10.1% and 6.9% respectively.

The US Dollar was the best performing currency in this chart, rising 1.8%, but it was trounced by the Pound Sterling, which gained 4.9%. The Japanese Yen was the only declining currency, dropping 0.9%. Bonds were up, with the 20+ year TLT adding 0.1%, while the 1-3 year SHY gained 1.6%. Neither rose as much as USD cash, however.

Bitcoin continued falling through most of the week, hit hard by an order from the Chinese central bank to close all cryptocurrency exchanges. After bottoming at 72.8 grams on Thursday, it rallied to end the week at 87.7 grams, down 12.1%. Ethereum followed a similar pattern, hitting a low of 5.2 grams on Thursday (47% below its all-time high), but recovered to close the week at 6.1 grams, down 14.2%. Both BTC and ETH continued to rally over the weekend, with ETH trading at 6.9 grams and BTC trading at 96.4 grams on Monday.

Stocks were higher, with the exception of gold stocks, which dropped 2.8%. The Dow Jones Industrials gained the most, rising 4.0%. The Japanese Nikkei rose 2.4%, the least of the major indexes.

Coffee was the strongest of the commodities, rising 10.1%. Cotton fell the most, dropping 5.8%. Crude oil was also strong, gaining 6.9%. Silver was down 1.1% while platinum was off 2.0%.