Gold holdings in gold-backed ETFs rose for the second straight month and turned positive for the year in November.
According to a report by the World Gold Council, 21.2 tons of gold, valued at about $804 million, flowed into ETFs last month. Total global holding rose to 2,365 tons.
World Gold Council chief market strategist John Reade projects healthy demand for physical gold in 2019 and said any kind of economic slowdown could boost demand — and the price — significantly.
The stock market got a nice bump on Monday with the news that there was a “truce” in the trade war. That lasted all of one day. The markets tanked on Tuesday as investors realized the “truce” really didn’t mean anything. The Dow Jones plunged 799 points, a 3.1% drop. The S&P 500 declined 3.2%, while the Nasdaq was down 3.8%. As one news outlet put it, “investors are quickly realizing that the US-China trade war is not over. The tariffs already put in place remain. And new tariffs could be implemented if the two sides fail to make progress.”
Well, yeah. Duh.
In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said he wasn’t surprised at all by the drop.
We talk a lot about bubbles in the economy.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve discussed the stock market bubble, the housing bubble, the auto bubble and the debt bubble.
Nick Giambruno simplifies things in an article he recently wrote for the International Man. He just calls it the “everything bubble.” And he says it will pop in the near future thanks to the Federal Reserve.
According to the US Mint, demand for American Eagle Silver Coins surged last month. The mint sold 1.65 million ounces of silver in November. That represented a 15% increase over October sales and a whopping 327% increase over November 2017.
Perhaps investors are recognizing the tremendous upside potential for silver. After all, the silver-gold ratio hit a quarter-century high last month. That signals the price of silver is out of whack.
But there are even more fundamental reasons to own silver in our updated report “The Powerful Case for Silver.“
After Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell released a dovish trial balloon last week, hinting we could be close to an end of the interest rate tightening cycle, the mainstream has suddenly turned bullish on gold. A recent Bloomberg article proclaimed, “Gold may be poised to rally as speculation mounts that the Federal Reserve will hit the pause button on interest rate hikes in 2019.”
Last week, there was some significant news out of India that could further boost the country’s gold market.
The Indian government will now allow banks to engage in gold bullion business – including holding, buying, selling, hedging and leveraging the yellow metal. Under current rules, banks can only serve as a consignment or channeling agent in the import of gold bullion for jeweler and exporters.
The loosening of regulations could increase a gold market that already ranks as the second-largest in the world behind only China.
Northern Irish investors are buying gold and lots of it as a safe-haven in the midst of Brexit uncertainty.
Merrion Vaults, a leading Irish supplier of gold and precious metals storage services, said the number of clients from Northern Ireland purchasing and storing gold in the Republic of Ireland has increased by 70% this year.
Stocks rallied and the price of gold got a bounce after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell released a dovish trial balloon on Wednesday.
During a speech at the Economic Club of New York, Powell seemed to indicate interest rates are “just below the broad range of estimates of the level that would be neutral for the economy.” Investors and pundits widely interpreted this to mean the central bank may well be near the end of its tightening cycle.
Bankers, investors and executives are increasingly worried about corporate debt, according to a Reuters report.
Specifically, the concerns center around “leveraged lending.” These are loans made to firms already deeply in debt. Think subprime loans for corporations. As the Reuters report put it, “the concern is that the loans would be difficult to either collect or resell in a downturn, putting both the borrower and lender at risk.”
