Cryptocurrencies advanced, while national currencies, stocks, bonds, and commodities were mixed. Crude oil plummeted again, closing down 20.3% to a new all-time low. Gasoline, diesel and natural gas (not in table) also made new all-time lows this week, as did copper. Ethereum made the largest gains, rising 7.6%.
Stocks moved higher, national currencies and bonds declined, and cryptocurrencies and commodities were mixed. Crude oil continued to be volatile, giving up most of last week's gains by closing down 22.9%. Gold stocks were the biggest winner, rising 11.5%.
Cryptocurrencies, national currencies and bonds fell, equities rose, and commodities were mixed. The largest gains and losses were all in commodities, with copper, crude oil, cotton and gasoline making new all-time lows. The largest gains were in palladium and platinum; they rose 27.3% and 11.7% respectively. Cotton took the biggest hit, falling 12.8%. Crude oil continued to collapse, dropping 12.6%.
Many people are rightly concerned that the US Federal debt has been exploding in the last few years. A quick look at the following chart will show why:
This chart doesn't try to show all the debts of the United States, just the publicly acknowledged debt of the federal government. So it doesn't include state and local debt, and it also omits unfunded liabilities (promises to pay in the future for things like medicare and social security). This is the number that grows each year by the size of that year's deficit.
Filed under Bonds, Gasoline, gold prices, monetary universe, price of gold, US Dollar, wages and salaries by
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 week the retail price of gasoline hit a new all-time high. Is it time to sell the SUV and buy a hybrid? Listen to the second Priced in Gold Podcast to hear my comments on pricing gasoline in gold. I have also added the chart showing US retail gasoline priced in gold for the last ten years to the Charts section of the website.
Filed under Audio Podcast, Gasoline by