Weekly Update 12 Jul 2019

Bonds were lower, but all other asset categories were mixed. Bitcoin and crude oil had the largest gains, as BTC rallied 6.2% and crude added 3.3%. The biggest losses were in cotton, which fell 6.6%, and Ethereum, which dropped 5.4%.

The only rising national currency was China's Yuan, which gained 0.6%. The largest currency losses were in the US Dollar, down 1.3%, and the Euro, off 1.1%. Short term bonds tracked USD cash, falling 1.3%, but the long term TLT did much worse, dropping 3.0%.

Bitcoin rose early in the week, hitting a high of 281 grams on Tuesday, then pulled back to close at 261.1 grams, up 6.2%. ETH followed a similar trajectory, hitting a high of 7.0 grams on Monday, but got slammed on Wednesday and Thursday, ending the week at 6.1 grams, down 5.4%. Some other cryptos did even worse; for example, DASH (not shown on the chart below) didn't rise much early in the week, but took a large hit on Wednesday and Thursday, finishing the week off 7.2%.

Gold stocks were this week's equity winners, gaining 2.6%. The Dow Industrials also rose a bit, gaining 0.2%. The Euro STOXX fell the most, dropping 1.9%.

Commodities were mostly lower, but crude oil was the exception, rising 3.3%. Cotton was hardest hit, falling 6.6%, but coffee wasn't far behind, dropping 5.5%. Platinum fell 3.0% to close at 18.1 grams/oz, just 2.4% above its all-time low. Silver fell to a low of 333 mg/oz on Wednesday before rallying to close at 335 mg, down 1.8%, and the lowest level seen since February of 1991, when it briefly traded at 309 mg.