Investing.com - June is behind us and with it the first half of 2017 is officially on the books.
In stocks, Technology companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) soared in the past six months. In fact, the equity rally has been entirely dependent on this sector.
On the other end, energy companies and bricks-and-mortar retailers have struggled with low commodity prices and declining sales, respectively. Transocean and Macy's (NYSE:M) lead the losers list in their respective industries.
In commodities, US Wheat is rallying, as a supply crunch propelled the grain's price higher. Gold hasn’t had an extraordinary first six months, but it is up 8% on the year.
Drops in prices of Crude and Brent have turned oil to an under-performer. US shale production is bringing oil prices down, despite OPEC's best efforts to make production cuts.
In currencies, the euro has strengthened almost 9% against the dollar and 6% against a basket of currencies. Rising growth and inflation in the Eurozone spurred the euro to a 52- week high.
The US Dollar Index is down 7%. The weakness comes because of doubts regarding the pace of future rate hikes as well as the delay in Trump's infrastructure agenda and tax reform.
Last but not least, Cryptocurrencies have exploded since the beginning of 2017, both in price and in volume. Ethereum's price is up 3250% this year, up from a little over $8 at the start of the year to its closing price of $280 on June 30.
Bitcoin, with gains of just 140% year to date, was one of the worst performing cryptocurrencies during the past six months. While it was a good investment in absolute terms, it has undeniably underperformed relatively to its peers.