This was a strange week, generally positive until Friday, when trade war announcements caused most assets except the USD and long term bonds to drop sharply. Bitcoin and Ethereum had fallen hard very early in the week, and were recovering slowly before giving up their gains on Friday, ending off 14.5% and 17.5% respectively. Long term bonds were the largest gainers, rising 1.7%.
The USD was the strongest currency, gaining 1.0%, while the Canadian Dollar was once again the weakest, giving up 0.7%. Long term bonds rose 1.7%, while short term bonds gained 1.0%.
Bitcoin and Ethereum followed similar patterns this week, falling hard on Sunday the 17th, recovering slowly until Friday, when they (along with many other asset classes) were slammed, ending the week down 14.5% and 17.5% respectively.
European stocks were the only equities to close lower, falling 0.6%. The S&P 500 saw the largest gains, rising 1.0%, followed by the Japanese Nikkei Index, which gained 0.7%. Gold stocks rallied 0.5%.
Copper and cotton here hard hit, dropping 3.5% apiece. Silver is listed as rising 4.1%, but this is a statistical anomaly. The London silver fix used in my database was issued just before the trade war stories hit the news wires on Friday, causing all the precious metals (and many other asset prices) to fall sharply. Using the New York closing prices for gold and silver gives a silver price of 0.402 grams/oz, for a gain of 0.42% for the week, a more fair assessment. That would make platinum's 0.7% gain the largest among the commodities.
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