2024 Market Review: The best-performing assets of the year

• Best-performing crypto: Ripple (+260%)
   
• Best performing commodity: Cocoa (+207.7%)
   
• Best performing stock index: SG20 (+30.5%)
   
• Best performing G10 currency: US dollar (+6.7%)

2024 has been yet another year of record highs!

Much of the market-related headlines this year has featured the likes of Bitcoin, gold, and the S&P 500 - each posting never-before-seen prices.

Yet, Bitcoin, gold, and the S&P 500 aren't even the best performers within their own respective asset classes.

Instead, we offer this list of best-performing instruments (year-to-date) across 4 different asset classes within the Alpari universe:

NOTE: All % figures below represent year-to-date gains as of time of writing on 24 December 2024.

• Best-Performing Crypto: Ripple (+260%)

Ripple had an even more spectacular year than bigger-name cryptos such as Ethereum (+49%) and Bitcoin (+121%), with the latter even reaching a 6-digit ($100,000) figure!

Ripple's token, XRP, soared especially after the US elections, given expectations that recent crypto convert and US President-Elect Donald Trump is set to roll out crypto-friendly policies under his second administration.

• Best-Performing Precious Metal/Commodity: Cocoa (+207.7%)

While sweet-toothed individuals grimaced, cocoa bulls rejoiced as this commodity's prices more than tripled this year, even briefly breaching the $13,000 mark!

For comparison, cocoa's year-to-date gains are more than 7 times greater than gold's 27% advance for the same period.

With global stockpiles already in a deficit coming into 2024, prices charged even higher this year in light of forecasts that output out of top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana will fall further.

Meanwhile, the current Harmattan season (which brings in dry and dusty weather from the Sahara) and a crop disease are feared to further crimp cocoa output across West Africa.

• Best-Performing Stock Index: SG20 (+30.5%)

This Singaporean stock index outperformed its major Western peers (US500 +25%; NAS100 +27.8%; GER40 +18.5%).

This island nation's stock index took the crown given that the city state is seen as a regional safe haven, given the challenges for the Chinese economy that's facing the threat of incoming US tariffs.

• Best-Performing G10 Currency: US Dollar +6.7%

The U.S. dollar has outperformed all G10 currencies thanks to Trump’s election win, with the USDInd (US dollar index) reaching a two-year high in December.

Trump's proposed policies are expected to revive US inflationary pressures.

Such prospects have prompted markets to predict the Fed will slow down its rate cuts (with the Fed confirming as much after the December FOMC meeting).

Such expectations helped the greenback erase its year-to-date loses through Q3, before turning tail to post massive gains vs. its G10 peers:

• NZD down 10.6%
   
• NOK down 10.6%
   
• JPY down 10.2%
   
• SEK down 8.9%
   
• AUD down 8.3%
   
• CAD down 7.9%
   
• CHF down 6.4%
   
• DKK down 5.9%
   
• EUR down 5.8%
   
• GBP down 1.5%

The above-listed assets have skyrocketed this year, surging past Fed rate cuts, ongoing military conflicts, and the US presidential elections, among a host of other major market-moving events over the past 12 months.

As we look to the coming year, question now is ...

What kind of market opportunities would the new year bring?

We'll keep you updated along the way with our Market Analysis, which will kick off the new year with our 2025 Look Ahead due to be published on Thursday, January 2nd.