With last week’s second 75 basis-point rate hike, the Federal Reserve now claims it has achieved a “neutral” monetary policy stance. That would mean, in theory, that interest rates are neither stimulating nor restraining the economy.
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The World Gold Council’s quarterly Demand Trends report for Q2 2022 have just been released and as usual we summarise for you. Overall despite Q2 weakness, strong first quarter ETF inflows fuelled a notable H1 recovery.
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It’s Official: Unemployment Claims Are on the Rise. We keep hearing the job market is proof of our economy’s strength, but labor force participation is at a near-50-year low and unemployment claims are actually on the rise.
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Support for aggressive tightening has strengthened within the FOMC. Indeed, the current tightening cycle is much steeper than the two previous ones, in which the Fed usually raised interest rates in 25-basis point moves, as the chart below shows.
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Gold investors shouldn’t look forward to a reversal in the Federal Reserve’s tightening policies because a flip-flopping Fed would create the kinds of economic instability that not even the biggest gold investors would appreciate.
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In what feels very much like a ‘here we go again’ moment, the market was looking for any cue that the Fed will soon pause or pivot signalling a return to easy money. And so, whilst raising rates a whopping 75bps, the first sentence of the statement delivered…
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Good news, says a sizable chorus of observers: Peak inflation finally has arrived. We can count President Biden among those who are singing that tune. But does a moderation in fuel prices signal that peak inflation has been realized?
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An economic hurricane is coming. Brace yourselves! This is at least what Jamie Dimon suggested last month. To be precise, he said: “Right now, it’s kind of sunny. Everyone thinks the Fed can handle this. That hurricane is right out there down the road, coming our way.
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S&P Global Market Intelligence just released both their Euro and US PMI’s and at the time that both central banks are tightening monetary policy, both of two of the worlds largest economies are showing clear signs of heading into a recession.
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The dollar rose this week, from 17.87mg gold to 18.24mg (that’s “gold fell from $1,740 to $1,705” in DollarSpeak), a gain of 2.1%. In silver terms, it rose from 1.61g to 1.67g (in DollarSpeak, “silver dropped from $19.24 to $18.64), or 3.7%.
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We’re hearing an increasing number of warnings that a stagflationary event could not only materialize, but persist for an entire decade. I don’t want to believe it. Even so, it’s starting to look like a certainty. The latest 9.1% inflation reading hit the financial markets hard.
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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), also known as the “central bank of central banks,” recently released a survey which states that at least 81 central banks around the world have been accelerating plans to release their own cryptocurrencies.
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The hangover is coming. The best cure is – except for the broth – gold. 75 basis points! This is how much the FOMC raised interest rates in June. As the chart below shows, it was the biggest hike in the federal funds rate since the 1990s.
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Given that not a single banker went to jail in the aftermath of the GFC, any actual time behind bars for the JP Morgan trio of Michael Nowak, Gregg Smith and Jeffrey Ruffo would send a powerful message to major commercials with heavy paper shorts on the COMEX.
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Bloomberg recently did a fairly comprehensive report on insider trading of precious metals by traders (most notoriously) at JPMorgan, and other large banks as well. JPMorgan pled guilty in 2019 and paid over $920 million to settle charges…
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“When will the US Fed pause or reverse and ease rates?” is quite simply most important question in global finance. This question is not simply one of US interest rate impacts, US inflation or US financial markets plunging off the back of all that liquidity being removed.
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March of this year, Merryll Lynch disclosed an investment thesis called FAANG 2.0. It’s a fascinating idea and gold plays a prominent role. Why is gold considered a safe-haven asset? The answer is simple but profound.
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After going essentially straight up for more than a year, the Dollar Index chart is now looking extremely overbought. The Federal Reserve note may be due for a retracement against its foreign counterparts. That will likely spark a rally in metals markets.
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Any discussion of gold’s price action must inevitably look at what’s happening in China, easily the worlds largest buyer of the precious metal. The softness of the metals price of late has many scratching their heads amid rampant inflation and a war.
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The bears awoke from their winter sleep and took control of Wall Street. However, they haven’t conquered the gold market yet! It’s official: there is a bear market in equities! We can firmly state that bears took control of Wall Street for the first time since the pandemic crash.
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Households Sacrifice Retirement Contributions to meet Cost of Living Increases. As inflation has forced Americans to slash retirement plan contributions, trillions of dollars have been wiped from 401(k)s and IRAs.
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Something has happened which has not occurred since 2009. The silver basis—our measure of abundance of the metal to the market—has gone way under the gold basis. This means silver is less abundant to the market than gold.
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New technology has shown billions of dollars worth of gold perfectly preserved on the floor of the Caribbean Sea. Some experts believe there to be at least 200 tonnes of gold, silver and emeralds in the legendary San Jose galleon shipwreck
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Yesterday the FOMC published the minutes from its last meeting, held in mid-June. Although the publication reveals no major surprises about US monetary policy, it shows rising worries within the Fed and also strengthens its hawkish rhetoric.
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Goldman Sachs raises year-end gold forecast to $2,500; why gold shines bright even after a losing Q2; and Zimbabwe rediscovers gold as a cornerstone of economic stability. Interestingly enough, Goldman’s lofty forecast for gold excludes possibility of hyperinflation…
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First off, bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi is a fraud, in which the sponsor promises a yield. Bitcoin is closer to a pyramid scheme. A pyramid is not necessarily a fraud, and not necessarily illegal. Like a Ponzi, the gains come from new investors…
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It may come as a major relief to Australians that we still have a lot of gold in the ground, because neither the RBA nor, the Australian government, nor many Australian citizens for that matter, hold very much gold. Australia’s gold reserves sit at 80 tonnes, unchanged since 1997…
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All presidents make mistakes, whether it’s failing to limit the growth of the federal budget or being unable to anticipate turns in the economic cycle. But the Biden administration has been unique in consistently getting just about everything wrong while stubbornly refusing to change course.
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