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Commodities Notch Their Best Year Since 2009, Despite Precious Metals Weakness
by Frank Holmes |
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Commodities as a whole had their best year in over a decade, due in large part to inflation triggered by unprecedented global monetary and fiscal stimulus. The group ended 2021 with a gain of 27%, the biggest yearly jump since 2009. |
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MARKET RECAP
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- The major market indices finished down this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.29%. The S&P 500 Stock Index fell 1.87%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.53%. The Russell 2000 small capitalization index lost 2.92% this week.
- The Hang Seng Composite lost 0.72% this week; while Taiwan was fell 0.27% and the KOSPI fell 0.76%.
- The 10-year Treasury bond yield rose 25 basis points to 1.77%.
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AIRLINE SECTOR
European airlines enjoyed a surprise improvement in bookings this week.
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EMERGING MARKETS
Poland staged the worldās first interest-rate hike of 2022, reports Bloomberg.
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ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
For the first time ever in December, the U.S. was the worldās biggest exporter of LNG.
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DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND EQUITIES
The unemployment rate continues to move lower toward pre-pandemic levels.
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BLOCKCHAIN AND DIGITAL CURRENCIES
BTCS becomes the first company to offer dividends paid in Bitcoin.
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GOLD MARKET
Gold has a shaky start to the new year on hawkish Fed minutes.
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LEADERS AND LAGGARDS
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