Weekly Update 12 Jun 2020

What goes up must come down… this was a very rough week, leaving only long term treasury bonds in the black, as the TLT bond ETF rose 1.0%, while all other assets declined. The largest losses mirrored the prior week's largest gains: crude oil fell 11% and European stocks fell 8.8%. UK stocks (not in table) did even worse than their European cousins; the FTSE dropped 9.9%.

The Chinese Yuan outperformed other national currencies, falling just 0.5%. The Yen also did well, giving up just 0.7%. Hardest hit were the Canadian Dollar, which fell 4.3%, and the Euro, which dropped 3.5%. The US Dollar declined 2.9%. US short term treasuries did slightly better, falling 2.8%. Long term bonds were the only rising asset this week; TLT gained 1.0%.

Bitcoin prices were fairly stable until dropping on Thursday to a low of 188.8 grams, then recovered to close the week at 170 grams, off 4.7%. Ethereum followed a similar course, with a low of 4.15 grams and a decline of 4.4%.

Gold stocks declined 2.6%, the best performance among the equities. The European STOXX index fell the most, giving up 8.8%. US stocks were not far behind, as the Dow Industrials dropped 8.3%. Although not in the table, the UK FTSE actually under-performed even the STOXX, sliding 9.9%.

The week's biggest decline was in crude oil, down 11.0%. Copper outperformed other commodities, closing down 1.2%. Precious metals did relatively well, as silver declined 2.6% and palladium slid 2.6%.