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.
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.
Most stocks were higher this week, while currencies, bonds, and commodities were mixed. As has been the case for the last few weeks, commodities were the most volatile assets, with crude oil showing the largest gains (up 5.7%) while coffee and palladium (off 3.3% each) had the largest losses.
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 great week for investors, as every asset class I track ended the week higher! Silver, which rose 7.7%, and Japanese Stocks, which gained 7.0%, led the rise. Currencies generally, and the EUR and CNY in particular, were the weakest asset classes.
This was a rough week for most asset classes. The only exceptions were crude oil, up 5.7% to recover most of last week's losses, the HUI gold stock index, which added 5.6% to the prior week's rally, and the Japanese Yen, which gained 1.4%. The biggest drops were in commodities, with coffee (off 7.3%), palladium (down 5.9%) and copper (dropping 5.7%) leading the way lower.
Filed under Bonds, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, Platinum, S&P 500, Stocks, US Dollar by
This was a good week for currencies, bonds, and most stocks, but mixed for commodities. The best performing asset was Bitcoin, which rose 4.3% – more than making up for last weeks decline. The next best was cotton, which gained 4.0%. The weakest asset classes were gold stocks, off 2.7%, and coffee, which dropped 2.2%.
