National currencies continued their rally, though at an easier pace; bonds rose also. The largest cryptocurrencies moved lower, giving back some of the prior week's gains, but overall the crypto space was mixed, as were stocks and commodities. Ethereum made the largest drop, falling 10.1%. Coffee had the biggest rally, adding 5.7%.
The Japanese Yen was the strongest national currency, rising 1.5%, while the Euro was the weakest, adding 0.6%. The US Dollar gained 1.1%. Short term notes moved up 1.1%, in line with USD cash, but long term bonds outperformed, rising 2.9%.
Bitcoin rose to a high of 193.2 grams on Monday, then worked lower to close at 187.4 grams, off 0.5%. Ethereum moved lower throughout the week, ending down 10.1%, the largest loss for any asset in the table. In spite of these losses, and the decline in the CCi30 (see more below) several important crypto currencies did make substantial gains. One example was privacy-centric Monero (XMR, not in table) which rose 11.8%.
Starting this week, I am adding coverage for a crypto currencies index, the CCi30. This is a market cap weighted index of the 30 largest cryptos (excluding stable coins). It is based on an index value of 100 for 1-Jan-2015. So this week's reading of 3,019.88 grams means that 100 grams (about 3.2 ounces) invested in the index at the beginning of 2015 would have grown to a value of more than 3 kg (97.1 ounces) today. A CCI30 chart page has been added as well.
Stocks were mixed but mostly higher, with gold stocks outperforming their peers, rising 3.1%. The S&P 500, up 1.8%, was best among the major indexes. The Euro STOXX fared worst, declining 0.3%.
Commodities were also mostly higher. Platinum was the only loser, giving up 4.5%. The best performers were coffee, up 5.7%, and cotton, up 3.4%. Copper rose 3.1% and silver gained 1.6%.
Although it took a drubbing this week, Ethereum is still the best performer, by far, over the last year, rising 54.8%. Vying for second place are the HUI gold stocks, up 21.2%, and silver, up 22.6%. Crude oil has fallen the most, dropping 40.6%. It's a tight race for second worst between the USD, off 21.9%, CAD, down 21.4%, and the JPY, down 21.5%.
Click for PDF version
