
Equities
Commodities
| Energy |
| Ethanol |
-5.78% |
| WTI Crude Oil |
-0.41% |
| RBOB Gasoline |
-1.60% |
| Brent Crude Oil |
-1.00% |
| Heating Oil |
-2.34% |
| Natural Gas |
-8.76% |
| Metals |
| Gold 100oz |
-2.18% |
| Palladium |
-1.18% |
| Platinum |
-2.83% |
| Copper |
-0.68% |
| Silver 5000oz |
-7.02% |
| Agricultural |
| Cocoa |
+3.59% |
| Corn |
+3.53% |
| Soybean Meal |
-3.96% |
| Soybeans |
-1.39% |
| Coffee (Arabica) |
+0.57% |
| Cotton |
+0.12% |
| Feeder Cattle |
-2.39% |
| Orange Juice |
-5.25% |
| Sugar #11 |
-0.40% |
| Wheat |
+0.88% |
| Cattle |
-0.34% |
| Coffee (Robusta) |
-2.21% |
| Lean Hogs |
-6.49% |
| Lumber |
+0.29% |
| White Sugar |
+0.10% |
Credit Indices
| Index |
Change |
| Markit CDX EM |
-0.30% |
| Markit CDX NA HY |
+0.52% |
| Markit CDX NA IG |
+0.73% |
| Markit iTraxx Asia ex-Japan IG |
+8.59% |
| Markit iTraxx Australia |
+7.20% |
| Markit iTraxx Europe |
+4.16% |
| Markit iTraxx Europe Crossover |
+16.58% |
| Markit iTraxx Japan |
+2.11% |
| Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe |
+2.94% |
| Markit LCDX (Loan CDS) |
-0.18% |
| Markit MCDX (Municipal CDS) |
+2.46% |
All I can say about this week is that I am glad that its over.
The NIFTY ended flat for the week but that hides the roller-coaster ride it put investors through. After all the oil-related panic, the S&P ended up more than 2% for the week.
Oil ended down, dollar up.
Hopefully Santa visits before expiry.
Index Returns

Advance Decline

Market Cap Decile Performance
| Decile |
Mkt. Cap. |
Adv/Decl |
| 1 (micro) |
-6.25% |
63/74 |
| 2 |
-3.65% |
63/73 |
| 3 |
-2.93% |
64/73 |
| 4 |
-2.21% |
61/75 |
| 5 |
-3.07% |
63/73 |
| 6 |
-1.98% |
65/72 |
| 7 |
-2.00% |
56/80 |
| 8 |
-1.38% |
64/73 |
| 9 |
-1.17% |
64/72 |
| 10 (mega) |
-0.01% |
68/69 |
The sell-off was brutal below the mega-caps…
Top Winners and Losers
Broad based action saw a mix of winners and losers…
ETF Performance
Banks withstood the onslaught well…
Yield Curve

Bond Indices
| Sub Index |
Change in YTM |
Total Return(%) |
| GSEC TB |
+0.44 |
+0.04% |
| GSEC SUB 1-3 |
+0.43 |
-0.43% |
| GSEC SUB 3-8 |
+0.19 |
-0.53% |
| GSEC SUB 8 |
+0.08 |
-0.34% |
Yields went up – breaking a long streak of falling rates.
Investment Theme Performance
Thought for the weekend
Asset managers and asset owners have a relationship beset with natural conflicts.
- Asset owners want fees below 10 bps; asset managers prefer “2% + 20%.”
- Asset owners want transparency; asset managers favor black-box opacity.
- Asset owners want simplicity; asset managers hire rocket scientists to create complex optimized solutions for sex appeal.
- Asset owners want “future” outperformance after they fund a manager; asset managers would be satisfied with strong past outperformance to facilitate future asset gathering.
- Asset owners want a bigger alpha; asset managers would happily sell them the possibility of alpha and charge handsomely for the service of selling hope.
Source: The Promise of Smart Beta