Weekly Update 17 May 2019 Cryptos on Fire

Cryptocurrencies and bonds rose this week, while all other asset classes were mixed. Ethereum saw the largest gains, soaring 41.5%. The largest losses were in platinum and cotton, which fell 3.5% and 3.1% respectively.

The Chinese Yuan fell 1.5%, the largest national currency decline in the chart. The Euro was also down, closing 0.5% lower, but the worst losses were in the British Pound Sterling (not shown in the chart) which fell 1.8%. The US Dollar rose 0.5%, making it the best performer of the group. US bonds did much better, as the short term SHY gained 0.6% and the long tern TLT added 1.5%.

Cryptocurrencies roared higher this week. Bitcoin worked its way up to peak at 196.5 grams on Wednesday the 15th, the pulled back to close at 178.3 grams, up 15.7%. Ethereum followed a similar pattern, peaking at 6.4 grams on Thursday the 16th, and closing the week at 5.9 grams, up a whopping 41.5%. Many other cryptos also moved higher; for example DASH rose 22.8%.

Outside of the cryptos, gold stocks put in the best performance of the week, rising 2.3%. The European STOXX index also rose, gaining 0.6%. All other indexes were lower, as the S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% each.

Crude oil matched the gold stock's 2.3% gain, but losers outnumbered winners among the commodities. The largest losses were in platinum, down 3.5% to 20.0 grams, and cotton, off 3.1%. Silver fell 1.6% and palladium rallied 0.8% to close at 32.0 grams, holding just above parity with gold.