The short trading week over Christmas brought a mix of results, taking bonds and national currencies lower, and producing a range of results for cryptocurrencies, stocks and commodities. The largest gains were in Ethereum, which rose 23.7%, and silver, which gained 2.4%. Cotton took the biggest losses, closing down 3.0% followed by the Canadian Dollar and crude oil which each fell 2.2%.
Among the national currencies, the Japanese Yen dropped least, giving up 1.0%. The Canadian Dollar fell the most, off 2.2%. US Dollar cash dropped 1.6%, underperforming USD bonds as TLT and SHY declined 1.4% each.
Cryptocurrencies were mixed but generally positive, as exemplified by Ethereum's 23.7% rise and Bitcoin's 0.9% decline. Similar results were seen in other cryptos, for instance, PIVX gained 19.2% while DASH dropped 3.7%.
The Japanese Nikkei was the weakest stock index, falling 1.7%. The S&P 500 rose the most, adding 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrials gained 1.1%. Gold stocks were off 0.6%.
Commodities were mixed, with falling assets including cotton (off 3.0%), crude oil (down 2.2%) and platinum (down 1.9% for a new all-time low of 19.2 grams). On the upside, silver surged 2.4% while palladium (up 0.6%) continues to hover just below parity with gold.
Thanks for being part of the Priced in Gold family; we wish you the very best in 2019!
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