Weekly Update 16-Dec-2016

This was a good week for most asset classes, with both the best and the worst performances among the commodities. The big winner was coffee, which added 5.1%, reversing it's multi-week losing streak. Palladium took the biggest hit, falling 4.9%. The Fed's announcement of a quarter point hike in interest rates (which was widely anticipated) gave new strength to the USD, pushing it up 2.8%, more than any other currency except Bitcoin, which rose 4.2%.

The only currency to fall was the Japanese Yen, which lost 0.2%. Bonds were higher, but buyers again showed their distaste for longer maturities, as the 20+ year TLT gained 2.5%, while the 1-3 year SHY gained 2.6%, and USD cash outperformed both by rising 2.8%.

All major stock indexes were higher, led by the Dow Jones Industrials, which rose 3.3%. The Nikkei 225, the weakest of the large cap indexes, gained 1.9%. The HUI gold stocks were once again the only falling equities, down another 4.0%.

As mentioned earlier, commodities were the movers and shakers this week. In addition to coffee's 5.1% gain, crude oil rose 3.6% and cotton rose 3.2%. On the downside, palladium was joined by silver, which fell 2.6%, and copper, which gave back 0.3%.

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