Weekly Update 25 Dec 2020 Merry Christmas!

Due to the Christmas holidays, this was a short trading week. Bonds rose, but all other asset classes were mixed. The largest gains were in Bitcoin, which continued to climb, adding another 6.9%, followed by coffee and long dated treasury bonds, which rose 0.9% apiece. Ether (down 4.1%) and the CCi30 crypto index (off 3.3%) had the largest losses.

National currencies were quiet ahead of the holiday, as USD cash rose 0.3%, the Yen was unchanged, and the Canadian Dollar and Chinese Yuan declined 0.3%. Short term notes tracked USD cash, rising 0.3%, but long term bonds gained 0.9%, making them one of the week's best performers.

The week's biggest price swings were in cryptocurrencies, as Bitcoin was the best and Ethereum the worst performing asset class. Bitcoin rose 6.9% to 409.2 grams and continued rising through the weekend, hitting a high of 469 grams on Sunday before settling back to 436 grams. Ether fell to a low of 9.68 grams on Wednesday, then recovered to close at 10.39 grams, down 4.1%.

US equity indexes were in the black, but Europe and Japan were in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, and the Euro STOXX and Japanese Nikkei each fell 0.4%. Gold stocks were down 0.5%.

Copper fell 1.5% and crude oil declined 1.4%; coffee rose 0.9%. Precious metals were mixed, as palladium and silver added 0.3% and 0.2% respectively, while platinum fell 1.3%.

Year over year, cryptocurrencies dominate on the upside, as Ether has risen 283.7% and Bitcoin is up 168.0%. Outside of cryptos, silver has been the star performer, rising 16.0%. Crude oil still shows the worst loss, down 37.7%, followed by coffee, off 23.0%. The US Dollar is in third place in the race to the bottom, with a loss of 21.0%.

Wishing you all happy holidays, and an excellent New Year!