This was a volatile week, but most of the volatility was to the upside.
Among the currencies, the EUR was strongest, rising 4% to close at 24.9 mg. The USD was second, up 2.7%, closely followed by BTC, which gained 2.4%. The laggard was the JPY, which still managed a respectable 1.8% gain. More comments on the USD later in this post.
More on Market Update 21 Dec 2012 – Get ready to sell the USD
Filed under Bitcoin, Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, EUR, Euro, Real Estate, Silver, Stocks, US Dollar by
This week's largest price swings were in the commodities, with coffee the biggest loser, falling 3% and setting another new all-time low, and cotton the biggest winner, up 4.3% to close at 13.8 mg/lb. Crude oil continued to rise this week, up 1.2% to 1.59 g/bbl, while silver continued its decline, dropping 0.7% to close at 0.596 g/oz.
Most assets were higher again this week, with bitcoin leading the way. Silver, gold stocks and crude oil were the only exceptions.
Currencies were all higher, but bitcoin was in a league of its own, rising 7.8% to 244 mg. The Euro was in second place, gaining 2% to close at 23.8 mg. The weakest of the bunch was the Japanese Yen, which still rose a respectable 1.1%.
Currencies and bonds reversed course this week, with all but Bitcoin moving lower. Stocks rose across the board, with the HUI gold stocks leading the way, and the Nikkei, hindered by the weak yen, rising the least. Commodities were mixed, with metals and energy higher, while cotton and coffee moved lower.
More on Market Update 23 Nov 2012 – Bitcoin continues to shine
This was a good week for most asset classes, with currencies and bonds all higher, stocks mixed, and commodities all higher except for coffee, which made a new all-time low of 26.3 mg/lb on Tuesday, but rallied to finish the week down 0.3% at 26.7 mg/lb.
More on Market Update 16 Nov 2012 – Bitcoin up, Gold Stocks down
Government issued currencies were little changed this week, with the USD strongest, up 1.2%. The USD continues to trade very close to its Half-Life curve, now 2.0% above the projected value. Bitcoin (BTC) however, got slammed, plummeting 11.3% for the week to finish at 186.9 mg. In trading over the weekend the BTC recovered slightly, to 193.7 mg.
More on Market Update 26 Oct 2012 – Treasuries up, Bitcoin down
This week saw massive coordinated central bank "easing", aka money printing, with the ECB promising unlimited new bond purchases to bail out the Eurozone and the German high court giving it's go-ahead, with the result that the EUR dropped to new all-time lows before experiencing a little "shadenfruede recovery" on the Fed's announcement and closing the week down 0.3%.
More on Market Update 14 Sep 2012 – EUR, Cotton, TLT and London Bitcoin Conference
This was a bad week for most investments, with announcements of QE in Europe, and hints and rumors of QE from the Fed pushing down all the major currencies, and hurting most of the investments denominated in them.
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