This week, government currencies and bonds were higher, while stocks and commodities were mixed. Long term treasuries, represented by TLT, had some of the largest gains both for the last week and the last month, but it may be time to sell – more on that later in this update. Bitcoin and the HUI gold stocks have been the weakest asset classes for the last week and the last month, with silver and platinum also hit hard. Coffee continues to be one of the strongest performers, over the last week, month and year.
This week, most asset categories were higher with coffee and crude oil making the biggest gains; the exceptions were copper and silver. Over the last month, currencies, bonds, and stocks (other than mining shares) were lower, while commodities were mixed. Government currencies are generally lower today than they were a year ago, especially the JPY and CAD, although the EUR gained slightly. Over the last year, bitcoin, coffee and the S&P 500 were the largest gainers, while cotton and crude oil declined the most.
This week had every single asset category showing a loss. The smallest drop was in the Canadian Dollar, while the largest drops were in coffee, down 9.0%, and gold stocks, off 3.9%. Meanwhile, the mainstream media has been full of articles trumpeting new all-time highs for the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 stocks. Of course, these are meaningless statements, as the dollars used to define these markets are heavily manipulated by the Federal Reserve. As the chart below shows, stocks in the real world are nowhere near new highs; in fact, despite a very good year in 2013, they are about 30% below their 2007 highs, and a whopping 70% down from their 2001 highs.
Filed under Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Dow Jones Industrials, new highs, S&P 500, Silver, Stocks by 
This week's biggest winner was gold stocks, up 3.9%, followed by cotton and copper, which rose 2.9% and 2.2% respectively. The biggest drop was in Bitcoin, down 4.6%, followed by crude oil which lost 3.7%. Government currencies, stocks, and short term bonds were all down slightly for the week, while long term bonds gained 1.0%.
This week the markets were almost all lower, with Japanese stocks, copper and crude oil seeing the largest declines. The only rising market was gold stocks, which managed a 2.7% gain.
Over the last week, and over the last month, assets have followed the same basic pattern: stocks mostly higher and currencies, bonds, and commodities mostly lower. Bitcoin has been the biggest winner by far, rising 29% in the last week and 179% over the last month. In addition to the fast rising price, global trading patterns are shifting as well. Read more below.
Markets were almost all higher this week, with only the HUI gold stocks losing ground. Bitcoin and the Japanese Nikkei stocks gained more than any other asset classes. The USD and JPY the strongest of the government-issued currencies. On Friday I was a guest on Power Trading Radio with John O'Donnell. We talk about stocks, housing, income, and discuss our forecasts for the price of gold. Check it out!
Filed under Bitcoin, Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, EUR, Euro, Platinum, price of gold, S&P 500, Silver, Stocks, US Dollar by
Markets were mostly higher this week, with government currencies, bonds and commodities all up while stocks were mixed and Bitcoin was slightly lower. The Japanese Yen gained more than any other asset class, while the HUI mining stocks lost the most ground.
Markets were mixed this week, with currencies and bonds mostly higher while stocks and commodities were mostly lower. Bitcoin gained more than any other asset class, while silver lost the most ground.
Markets were mostly lower this week. Bitcoin and crude oil fell more than any other asset classes, while silver was the biggest winner. Copper and the Nikkei stocks were the only other assets in the black.
