December and 2019 in Figures
January 2, 2020
Equities performed spectacularly in 2019 as a whole and rose in December, too. Ten-year sovereign debt yields rose in December but fell in 2019. Three 25-basis point cuts were made in the federal funds target last year, reversing all by one of the four hikes done in 2018. Elsewhere, there was only a 10-basis point policy interest rate cut by the European Central Bank last year and no changes in the policy rates of the Bank of England, Bank of Japan, or Swiss National Bank. The dollar closed narrowly mixed in 2019, and the prices of gold and oil climbed substantially.
While the second decade of the 21st century doesn’t technically end for another year, currency market watchers consider December 31, 2019 to be the end of a chapter. In the twenty-tens, the euro fluctuated between $1.4939 and 1.0341 versus a range of $1.6038 – 0.8228 in the twenty-ohs. Against the yen, the dollar ranged from a low of 75.55 to a high of 125.86 in the twenty-tens compared to a band of JPY 84.83 to 135.15 in the previous ten years. Sterling topped out in the twenty-tens at $1.7191 and posted a low of $1.1522; the pound’s dollar range in the twenty-ohs had been $2.1160 to $1.3505. The Swiss franc traded in a 1.6128 to 1.3723 per dollar band in the twenty-ohs and a stronger 1.1730 to 0.7085 per dollar band these past ten years.
Among commodity-sensitive currencies, the dollar ranged between 1.4690 and 0.9403 compared to the loonie these past ten years. The Aussie dollar range in the twenty-tens was USD 1.1080-0.6672, and the kiwi moved between USD 0.8840 and USD 0.6121.
| 10-Yr Yield | 12/31/19 | Change in Dec | 2019 Change |
| U.S. | 1.92% | +14 Basis Points | -76 Basis Points |
| Germany | -0.19% | +17 | -43 |
| Japan | -0.03% | +6 | -2 |
| U.K. | 0.81% | +12 | -46 |
| Canada | 1.70% | +24 | -26 |
| Switzerland | -0.54% | +12 | -23 |
| CB Policy Rate | 12/31/19 | Change in Dec | 2019 Change |
| Fed funds target | 1.50/1.75% | 0 Basis Points | -75 bps |
| ECB deposit rate | -0.50% | 0 | -10 |
| BOJ policy rate | -0.10% | 0 | 0 |
| BOE Bank Rate | 0.75% | 0 | 0 |
| Swiss 3M Libor | -1.25/-0.25% | 0 | 0 |
| FX | 12/31/19 | Pct Chg in $ | Pct Chg in $ |
| EUR/USD | 1.1215 | -1.8% | +2.1% |
| USD/JPY | 108.65 | -0.7% | -0.9% |
| USD/CHF | 0.9676 | -3.2% | -1.6% |
| GBP/USD | 1.3247 | -2.4% | -3.8% |
| AUD/USD | 0.7017 | -3.6% | +0.4% |
| NZD/USD | 0.6730 | -4.7% | -0.4% |
| USD/CAD | 1.2984 | -2.2% | -4.8% |
| USD/CNY | 6.9632 | -1.0% | +1.2% |
| Equities | 12/31/19 | Change in Dec | 2019 Change |
| S&P 500 | 3228 | +2.8% | +28.8% |
| Nasdaq | 8973 | +3.6% | +35.2% |
| Djia | 28538 | +1.8% | +22.3% |
| Dax | 13249 | +0.1% | +25.5% |
| Nikkei | 23657 | +1.6% | +18.2% |
| Ftse | 7542 | +2.7% | +12.1% |
| Canada TSE | 17074 | +0.2% | +19.2% |
| Swiss SMI | 10617 | +1.2% | +26.0% |
| Commodities | 12/31/19 | Change in Dec | Ch v End-2018 |
| Oil, $ per barrel | 45.51 | +10.9% | +34.5% |
| Gold, $ per ounce | 1282.60 | +3.9% | +18.5% |
Copyright Larry Greenberg 2020. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: equities, foreign exchange, gold and oil, sovereign debt yields
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