This week we experienced a relatively calm market in the Holiday lull between Christmas and
New Year’s. 

Indicators
The S&P 500 continued to reach higher during the week followed by a 0.28% slip on Friday.
As the last trading day passed the Index closed at 4769.83, 24.23% up from last year. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average opened on Monday at 37445.37 and has seen a slight
increase over the week closing at 37689.54 on Friday. Nasdaq’s Composite Index opened
the week at 15054.53 and due to Friday’s decrease closed slightly lower at 15011.35, still
ending the year 43.42% up. Tokyo’s Nikkei saw an increase on Wednesday but slightly
slipped on the last two trading days, closing at 33464.17, gaining over 27% in the last year. 

Bonds & Rates
US mortgage rates have fallen for the ninth consecutive week, reaching the lowest level
since May. In the last week of the year, both the 2- and 10-year Treasury yields experienced
a slight decline, settling at 4.25 and 3.866, respectively. This marked the end of a notable
year in the US bond market. 

Commodities
Metal prices have shown mixed results over the last week. The price of gold rose to near an
all-time high of 2093.1 on Wednesday but later slipped and closed the week at 2062.68.
Silver and copper, however, had experienced a slight decrease over the past week. Crude oil
prices have been slipping throughout the week, causing both the front-month WTI and Brent
to close 2023 with losses of 11% and 10%, respectively. 

Cryptocurrencies
Regarding cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin showed mixed performance, closing the week with a
loss of around 4%, currently moving around 42270 USD. Despite this end-year slip, bitcoin is
on track to close a strong year, gaining over 153.2% in 2023. 
Currencies
Although the US dollar saw an increase on Friday, it is still on track to end the year on its first
loss since 2020 due to the expectations that the US Federal Reserve might cut rates as early
as March 2024. As the dollar weakens, the EURUSD is close to a 5-month peak, moving
around 1.1, recording a 3% gain in 2023. Similarly, the GBPUSD moves close to a 5% gain.

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