Bitcoin continued to rocket upward this week, with long term treasuries a distant second place. Coffee and the Nikkei Index were the biggest losers.
Government issued currencies were mixed, with the Yen down 2.6% and the Euro down 0.5%, while the Canadian Dollar rose 0.5% and the US Dollar was unchanged. In contrast, the free market currency, Bitcoin, gained 8.2% to close at 418 mg. The BTC is up 62% in the last month.
This was a good week for everything but gold stocks and coffee.
All the currencies were higher, led by the free market Bitcoin, which continued its near vertical ascent, adding 8.1% to last week's 9.1% rise, closing at 312.2 mg. The Euro was the strongest of the government issued currencies, up 1.8% while the CAD was weakest, up only 0.2% – now at parity with the USD at 18.7 mg. More on the USD below. The Japanese Yen closed up 1.7% at 0.210 mg, hovering near its all-time low of 0.205 mg, set the weekend before. Look for more weakness here as the Japanese government printing presses begin to run overtime.
More on Market Update 25 Jan 2013 – Everything Up but Gold Stocks
Stocks, bonds, and currencies (other than Bitcoin) were weaker this week, while commodities, with the exception of copper, were higher.
Among the government issued currencies, the Japanese Yen was weakest, falling 2.8%, while the Euro was the "least weak", declining only 0.3%. The US Dollar ended 2012 right at its 200 day moving-average, pushed above it in early January – reaching 18.9 mg on Jan 7th, 10.1% above the half-life predicted value – and has since retreated, ending this week at 18.4 mg, down 1.2%, and sitting 7.8% above the half-life curve forecast.
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
The Euro fell again this week to another record low of 22.56 mg, before recovering slightly to close down 0.3% at 22.60 mg. For the YTD, the EUR is down 11.6%. The USD and JPY rose slightly (0.5% and 1.2% respectively), while the CAD was little changed, down 0.1%. The USD remains very close to its Half Life curve, ending the week 2.7% below the predicted value.
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