Stocks and crypto currencies rallied, while bonds fell. National currencies and commodities were mixed, but mostly higher. The CCi30 crypto index rose the most, gaining 13.0%. Coffee and long term bonds were the biggest losers, falling 1.9% and 1.5% respectively.
The Euro was this week's strongest national currency, up 0.6%, followed by the Canadian Dollar, up 0.4%. The Japanese Yen, down 0.5%, was weakest. The USD rose 0.1%, but bonds underperformed cash; long term bonds dropped 1.5%, while short term notes declined 0.1%.
Cryptocurrencies were the week's best performers. The broad 30 crypto index gained 13.0%. Bitcoin rose 10.2%, but still remains below the 1 kg level, at 875.7 grams.
Stocks were all in the green, led by gold stocks, up 2.6%, and the Euro STOXX, up 2.4%. The Japanese Nikkei was the weakest index, up 0.8%. The Dow Industrials rose 1.7% while the S&P 500 added 2.3%.
The only declining commodity was coffee, down 1.9%. Palladium was the best performer, rising 6.4% and closing back above parity with gold at 32.6 grams. Crude oil was the next strongest, rising 4.3%. Platinum also was strong, gaining 4.0%. Silver was little changed, up 0.2% at 0.391 grams per ounce.
Year over year, cryptocurrencies are still outperforming all other assets, with Ether up 620% and the 30 crypto index up 249%. Outside of crypto, coffee, up 90.7%, and crude oil, up 58.9%, are the best performers. Palladium has the worst track record, losing 15.7% of it's value, followed by gold stocks, which are down 11.1%. Next week we will look more in depth at the overall results from 2021.
Happy Holidays!
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