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%.
Another mixed week, with currencies mostly lower, and stocks lower in the US, but higher in Japan and Europe. Commodities were volatile: crude oil made the biggest gains this week, rising 5.5%, while the largest losses were in cotton, off 8.7%, and coffee, down 4.8%.
Filed under Bitcoin, Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500, Silver, Stocks, Uranium by 
This was a mixed week, with currencies mostly lower, and stocks lower in the US, but higher in Japan and Europe. Crude oil had the biggest drop, falling 7.4%, while the largest gains were in the Euro STOXX, up 5.9% and the gold stocks, which rose 4.2%.
Filed under Bonds, Commodities, Dow Jones Industrials, Platinum, S&P 500, Silver, Stocks, US Dollar by
This was a generally up week, with all asset classes rising except for the Japanese Yen, which dropped 2.9%, and the long term bonds (TLT), which fell 1.6%. Cotton, up 15.2% and palladium, up 9.0% were especially strong this week.
News headlines proclaim that the US stock market indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are hitting all-time highs. And this is true, when measured in US Dollars. But measured in Gold? Here are my thoughts on this topic.
Filed under Bitcoin, Dow Jones Industrials, Stocks by
Currencies and short-term bonds continued their tumble, while stocks and commodities were mixed. The week's biggest losses were in crude oil, off 8.3%, and copper, down 5.1%. The UK FTSE stocks were also hit hard, losing 5.0% for the week. The largest gains were in gold stocks, which moved 3.7% higher, and platinum, which rose 3.0%.
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The big news this week was Bitcoin, which exploded higher, rising 27.6% to close a hair above 18 grams. Bitcoin is now 173.8% higher than this time last year! The second largest gain was in coffee, up 1.6%. The weakest assets were palladium, off 5.3%, and Japanese stocks, which fell 4.8%.
The only rising asset classes this were coffee, up 4.8%, and silver, which gained 4.6%. All the others declined, led by copper, down 7.0%, and the Euro STOXX, which fell 6.5%. The next largest losses were in the Chinese Yuan, which dropped 4.8%.
Reader Ray Boyd asks, "How does one determine if a certain commodity or item is going up in value priced in mg or grams of gold?"
This is a foundational question. When you buy any asset, you are either selling gold to pay for it, or getting the funds from elsewhere and passing up the opportunity to store those funds in the form of gold. Either way, the asset purchased has a "gold cost".
Filed under Dow Jones Industrials, price of gold, US Dollar by
This was an excellent week for all asset classes except the platinum group metals and gold mining stocks. Topping the charts was Bitcoin, which gained 10.2% to close at 12.1 grams. This was followed by cotton, up 7.5% and the Euro STOXX (FEZ ETF) which gained 6.9%. The HUI gold stock index had the greatest losses, down 5.3%, closing at 5.1 grams. Platinum, off 1.0%, and palladium, down 0.7%, were the only other declining assets for the week.
