Currencies and commodities were mixed, while bonds and major stock indexes were slightly higher this week. The largest drop was in crude oil, which fell 6.5%. The biggest gains were in Bitcoin, which rose 6.4%. Gold stocks were down 3.3% after being up 3.0% in the prior week.
The weakest national currency was the Canadian Dollar, which fell 1.0%. Of the currencies I show in this chart, the Euro was strongest, gaining 1.0%; but I also track many other currencies, and of those, the British Pound stands out, rising 2.3% this week. Bonds were slightly higher, with the long term TLT, short term SHY and USD cash all up 0.2%. Bitcoin continues to inch closer to parity with an ounce of gold, rising 6.4% this week to close at 30.5 grams.
The only equities to close lower were the gold stocks: the HUI fell 3.3%. The Japanese Nikkei index rose 1.5%, while the Euro STOXX gained 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrials added 0.6%, the smallest gain among the major indexes.
The weakest commodities were crude oil and coffee, which dropped 6.5% and 6.3% respectively. The biggest gains were in cotton, which rose 4.6%. Silver fell 3.0% while platinum gained 0.6% to close at 23.8 grams.
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