This was a losing week for government-issued currencies as well as stocks and bonds, but mixed for commodities. The free market currency Bitcoin made the largest gains, rising 8.6%, while crude oil and gold stocks saw the largest declines, falling 4.8% and 4.7% respectively. Platinum bounced back, recouping almost all of the prior week's losses.
Currencies and bonds rose this week, while stocks and commodities were mixed. The strongest asset class was crude oil, which gained 9.8%, while the weakest was silver, which lost 1.2%.
Among the currencies, Bitcoin made the largest gains, rising 2.4%. The USD and EUR rose 1.2% each, and even the weakest currencies, the CNY and CAD, gained 0.8%. Short term treasuries tracked the dollar's 1.2% gain while long term treasury bonds gained 1.7%.
Another mixed week, in many ways a reversal of last week's trends. Currencies were mostly higher, while stocks were higher in the US, but lower in Japan and Europe. Commodities were volatile: crude oil again made the biggest gains this week, rising 9.5%, and the largest losses were once again in cotton, down 3.3%.
This week's trading saw currencies and bonds lower, stocks mixed, and commodities mostly higher. The largest gains were in crude oil, up 6.9%, palladium, up 6.2%, and silver, which rose 4.9%. The weakest asset was the long treasury bond (TLT) which fell 3.9%.
This was a bad week for currencies and bonds, but a mixed week for stocks and commodities. The best performing asset class was palladium, which rose 7.3%, followed by crude oil, which gained 5.2%. The weakest asset was Bitcoin, down 6.6%, followed by long term bonds (TLT), off 5.3%.
Filed under Bitcoin, Commodities, Dow Jones Industrials, Euro, Platinum, Silver, Stocks by 
A good week for stocks; a mixed week for commodities and currencies. The best performing asset class, by far, was crude oil, which rose 11.0% – but with crude’s weak performance during the first 6 weeks of the year, it is still sitting near its all-time lows. The weakest asset was cotton, down 3.8%, followed by palladium, off 2.6%.
The huge winner last week was the Swiss Franc. The Swiss central bank did a sudden about-face last Thursday, dropping its peg to the Euro, and the CHF rose 13.4% for the week while all other major currencies fell 3%-6%.The only other asset category in the black was the HUI gold stock index, which is now hovering just below its 200 day moving average and resistance at about 5 grams. Watch closely to see if this is really a breakout to the upside or just a dead cat bounce.
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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'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%.
