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These Were The Best Performing Assets In Volatile January

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Much was said about the outperformance of the Nikkei relative to other asset classes in various months in 2014. Outperformance in Yen terms that is: for 2014 the Nikkei was actually down in USD terms. However, somehow we doubt if as much will be said about January's best performing asset - again, in local currency terms - which was the Russian stock market. Actually, come to think of it, we doubt anything will be said in the mainstream media about January's two best performing assets in USD terms either: silver and gold.

In Local-currency terms:

 

In USD terms:

Some additional color from Deutsche Bank:

It was an eventful start to the year for markets with the ECB's QE decision, the Greek election, a surprise policy move by the SNB, and the further weakness in Oil being just some of the key headlines that dominated the month. Asset performance was a mixed bag partly distorted by the large moves in FX markets. Indeed if we were to pick the 'clear cut' winners for January the US Dollar and precious metals were probably the standouts. For instance on a local currency basis, Russia's MICEX (+18%), the DAX (+9%), FTSE MIB (+8%) and Stoxx (+7%) were some of the best performers (indeed it was the strongest January for the Stoxx600 since data started in 1990) although much of these gains were eroded by the strength in USD. The Ruble took another hit last Friday following the surprise interest rate cut while European assets are affected by the decline in the EUR. Indeed if we rebase all these assets in USD their respective performances would be closer to flat in the case of the strong European ones and negative in Russia thus illustrating the huge FX swings.

Indeed the Dollar had another good month with the DXY index (+5%) up for its 7th consecutive month - the longest stretch of gains since the Bretton Woods collapse in 1971. The JPY and the CHF were the only two G10 currencies that appreciated against the Dollar in January - the former explaining the outperformance of the Nikkei (in Dollar terms) against other DM equities in January. This is interesting as the big macro Japan trade has been quiet this month. The EUR and GBP were down around 7% and 4% against the Greenback in January. The 'January effect' lost its magic for the second consecutive year with S&P 500 finishing the month about 3% lower. Note that Greek equities were down -12.5% and -18.3% in Euro and USD terms.

Fixed income had a good month generally across the board with Treasuries, Bunds, and Gilts up +3.0%, +2.2% and +4.9% respectively. Although similar to trends elsewhere, EUR and GBP denominated assets underperformed on a currency adjusted basis given the Dollar strength. Another good example to show here is perhaps in Credit markets. US HY and EU HY were up around +0.6% and +0.9% respectively in local currency terms but on a Dollar basis EU HY finished the month much lower at around -6%.

Turning to commodities, Gold (+8%) and Silver (+10%) are leading the way higher perhaps a reflection of reflationary and flight to quality trades being put on. Not all commodities were higher though as growth proxies such as Brent (-8%), WTI (-9%), and Copper (-12%) all suffered which is perhaps a sign of where global growth is feared to be headed. As usual our asset performance tables and charts are updated in the PDF. Given the currency moves our charts showing the difference between local currency and USD returns are fascinating.

 

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Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:21 | 5738607 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Gold smash-down now arriving on track number two.  All aboard who's coming aboard!

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:26 | 5738616 Larrioto
Larrioto's picture

Choo Choo bitchez

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:29 | 5738624 Philo Beddoe
Philo Beddoe's picture

I looked at my charts today and I can clearly see a lesbian dancing with a midget in a doghouse pattern on my Gold chart. Bullish Gold.

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:31 | 5738633 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

Was it the one legged midget limbo dancer ?

Only she is bullish for PM's.

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:35 | 5738643 Philo Beddoe
Philo Beddoe's picture

Good question. I plotted a line from the lesbian's crotch to the base of the midget's left foot. When I noticed the midget's right foot outside of the doghouse....well you know the rest. 

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 11:28 | 5738918 nuubee
nuubee's picture

The best charts have no boundaries, I approve of your analysis.

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:32 | 5738638 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

Au has 1300-phobia...

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:52 | 5738726 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

great.  a sale.

anyone who believes the comex value of PMs deserves to be left out in the cold.  most people will look back on these days as the golden opportunity they missed, just like the 2000s except exponentially higher.

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:37 | 5738632 eclectic syncretist
eclectic syncretist's picture

Switzerland just released the complete 2014 breakdown of PM imports and exports.  A slew of interesting facts are present in the publically available excel files.

http://www.ezv.admin.ch/themen/04096/04101/05233/05672/index.html?lang=en

For instance, for 2014 the top 5 gold importing countries were

India 470 tonnes

Switzerland 460 tonnes

Hong Kong 367 tonnes

China 213 tonnes

Singapore 128 tonnes

and the top 5 gold exporting countries were

UK 622 tonnes

Chile 202 tonnes

USA 200 tonnes

Argentina 137 tonnes

Peru 115 tonnes 

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 11:55 | 5739037 venturen
venturen's picture

obviously the gold exporters are all banana republics 

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 13:56 | 5739515 assistedliving
assistedliving's picture

does anyone believe these figures?  UK 622 tons?  maybe tungsten but not Au

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:34 | 5738642 Romney Wordsworth
Romney Wordsworth's picture

Gold & Silver, IMO, are like LEAD. It's ridiculous to try and describe how they're 'performing' until the time comes you have to use them [& frankly, you hope that day never comes].

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 11:29 | 5738931 nuubee
nuubee's picture

Are you trying to say that the Lone Ranger was like the Ben Bernanke of his era?

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 10:35 | 5738646 George Soros
George Soros's picture

Told ya about DAX ....

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 11:04 | 5738797 SmallerGovNow2
SmallerGovNow2's picture

And everytime ZH has one of these articles the gold and silver smack down hammers come out...

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 11:39 | 5738947 Shitgum Suicide
Shitgum Suicide's picture

We'll we had such a booming Q4 with 5% GDP no wonder we were giving away our gold. I mean come on who in their right minds would want to keep a bunch of relics because of tradition anyways?

Barbarians they be

Tue, 02/03/2015 - 12:16 | 5739111 MDP
MDP's picture

Head fake to PM's. When are they going to announce the next round of QE? This dead horse can take many more beatings. People are still hung over from the Super Bowl and the vast majority don't realize they are being made lifelong debt slaves to the Fed. Plus they still have two more years of black Jesus to give further distraction. The bubble won't burst on his watch because he would never take the fall for the collapse; he would go with the scorched Earth policy, and that's bad for business. Bullish until Q12017.

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