As the final curtain on 2016 was drawn, it's time to take stock of the markets during the year.
American stock markets are up, with the DJI failing to gain 20K but booking a decent 13.4% gain over 2016 closing at 19763. Last Wednesday we were within a sigh of 20K. The S&P added 10.05% over the year to close at 2238.8 while the Nasdaq Comp added 8.43% to 5383.1.
Despite a poor last quarter, gold holds on to a 8.5% gain over 2016, closing at 1150.9. Silver does better with a 14.8% advance to $15.88. After a four year slide, PM miners now outperform the metals, with the HUI up close to 64% closing at 182.3 on Dec 30. As a result, HUI/Gold firmed to 0.158. The
detailed yearly article provides more info.
It is illustrative that, despite timid advances of precious metals since before XMas, miners showed resilience with the HUI advancing 7.9% over the short trading week (moreover despite sliding towards 2017 on Friday Dec 30). Gold was up 1.65% over the week, while silver only added 1.65%. The PGM's were mixed with Pt lagging with a 1.12% advance to $901 but Palladium showing more vigor: up 2.9% to $678.
Our Benchmark ETF's were mixed, with only GDXJ outperforming the HUI index. The Global-X silver miners ETF SIL only advances by a modest 2.75%, while the gold explorer ETF GOEX slides against the trend. With a 9% advance for the week, our
Contributor driven Explorer and Junior Mining spreadsheet is well off. The long term (blunt average) decline is mitigated to 15.46% while cap weighed were again breaking even.
Asanko Gold and Mirasol Resources once more turn long term declines to advances, bringing the advance/decline ratio to a less cumbersome 6 to 13. Both Osisko Royalties and Osisko Mining mitigated long term declines to single digits.
Among references, the gold and silver COMEX future contracts now are rolled over to Dec 2017.