What's hot, what's not

While the events of last week were interesting indeed, the rightmost column in the table below from the Wall Street Journal continues to be the most intriguing part of the story. With year-end only about two weeks away, things won't stray too far from these levels. The only two asset classes showing gains are the trade weighted dollar (up 8.7 percent) and gold (up 3.2 percent), a competition worth watching closely for a myriad of reasons.

As for stocks, well, the new year can't come soon enough.