Contact us
CALL US NOW 1-888-GOLD-160
(1-888-465-3160)
POSTED ON November 9, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

Tuesday night’s election coverage had both sides fidgeting for a while, but Donald Trump staged an almost miraculous comeback, winning in state and counties where Democrats thought they had an edge. While liberals were taken by surprise, they weren’t the only ones. Polling experts, who were generally confident in the data showing Clinton with a four-point lead, were stumped at exit polls and data showing the Democratic candidate performing better with minorities and white educated women than anticipated.

voting_stock_market

POSTED ON November 9, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

The confectionery corporation Mondelez International Inc. has announced it will be downsizing its beloved Swiss chocolate bar Toblerone due to the high cost of ingredients. The Illinois-based company, said in a Facebook post: “We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the U.K.”

Adjusting the size and weight of their products is a common practice for manufactures of food and beverages. It’s called “shrinkflation” and works as a cost cutting maneuver. In adjusting the Toblerone, the manufactures reduced its iconic row of triangular shaped pieces, expanding the gaps between each.

toblerone candy bar

POSTED ON November 8, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

Last week, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released its monthly employment report, which painted a conveniently rosy economic picture just ahead of the election. The report showed the official unemployment rate was down (4.9%) with 161,000 new jobs added in October. Average hourly earnings and wages also jumped up 0.4%. There was some bad news to report as well, mainly in the form of full-time job losses, part-time job increases, and the rise in the number of multiple (two or more) job holders. Simply put: we’re creating more jobs, but those jobs are increasingly part-time. More and more Americans have to find more than one job to make ends meet.

tired man by computer

POSTED ON November 7, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

clinton trump and the Federal building

With presidential candidates, sometimes it’s tough to cut through the political minutia to find out what they think about important issues. The debates didn’t seem to shine much of a light on topics like the Federal Reserve and interest rates, so here’s a quick look at how Clinton and Trump are leaning when it comes to reforming the Fed.

POSTED ON November 4, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

With the election looming, the Fed met all expectations of delaying a rate hike in November. Whether or not a hike happens in December, the benefit to owning gold is that “real” interest rates could stay low or negative regardless of the outcome. Learn about all that and more in this week’s Fed Up Friday.

Regardless of Election, Fed Should Expect Big League Changes

With Tuesday’s contentious presidential election looming, the Fed may want to prepare for more changes. U.S. News analyzed both Clinton and Trump’s plans for fixing the Fed once they become President.

Unsurprisingly, Clinton’s progressive platform strengthens the Fed’s control of the financial markets. Clinton has said she would go “well beyond Dodd-Frank” in an effort to reform the central bank. Trump, on the other hand would likely do away with heavy regulation, and has also stated publicly that it would be “important to audit” the Fed if elected. Clinton is against an audit.

Fed Up Friday

POSTED ON November 3, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

traders on stock market floor

On Wednesday gold prices broke the $1,300 level, their highest since early October as election anxieties brought stocks and the dollar downward. Gold ended the day surrendering half its gains following the release of the Fed’s rate announcement and found support below the $1,300 level with lows just above $1,295.

The Fed’s delay was highly expected and is seen by many as setting the stage for a December move. The probability for an increase Wednesday came in at only 7% while the odds of a December move jumped to 74%. Also suggestive was the fact that FOMC dissenters voting for an immediate hike fell to two, down from three last month.

However, an interest rate hike in December isn’t a foregone conclusion; there’s still the US presidential election to contend with, and there’s still plenty of fear out there among investors. “This unbelievable election season we’re going through isn’t exactly engendering confidence,” stated Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co.

POSTED ON November 1, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

The people of Venezuela are currently suffering from triple-digit inflation and their bolívar fuerte (“strong bolívar”) currency isn’t worth 0.10 US cents at the moment, according to Bloomberg. As the country approaches hyperinflation levels, buying everyday items (when available) takes so many bank notes businesses have abandoned counting and starting weighing money instead. Boxes and bags of bills are becoming a nuisance to shop owners who have to find places to store the currency.

Empty shelves at a store in Venezuela

POSTED ON October 31, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

Friday’s release of the latest GDP numbers at 2.9% showed the biggest economic growth in two years. With the presidential election less than two weeks away, the timing of the release along with the estimate itself seems overly convenient for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Weak GDP numbers and a stagnant economy have been one of Donald Trump’s biggest policy issues.

A closer look at the government’s GDP estimate reveals something else at work. In his latest podcast, Peter crunches the numbers and shows how 2.9% growth just doesn’t add up. The estimate is highly improbable given several different factors like a one-time surge in soybean exports due to poor South American harvests, incorrect deflator used in calculations, and a curiously low consumer sentiment level.

Taking just a few of these factors into consideration, the 2.9% becomes a much more likely 1.1%, which is more consistent with what we’ve seen this year. Even if the government’s GDP estimates are fairly accurate, the average for the year still suggests weak growth.

POSTED ON October 28, 2016  - POSTED IN Key Gold Headlines

Despite today’s GDP numbers and many expecting a rate hike in December, get ready for years of continued low interest rates for a struggling economy. A rate hike this year will simply be “too little, too late” for our weakest economy since 2008. Learn more about how the Fed factors into all of this in this week’s Fed Up Friday.

Yellen’s Desire to Run up Inflation could cause “Civil War” at Fed

There are an increasing number of hawks at the Fed who are at odds with Yellen’s monthly plans to continuing the policy of waiting for “good” data. Many see last September’s meeting as being “the straw before the straw” that breaks the camel’s back. There seems to be a growing division between the two camps, with more hawkish members putting up a tougher fight in December.

As Peter said in his latest podcast, a December rate increase will “too little too late” to negatively affect the gold market. “The Fed is going to deliver far less than it promised when it comes to rate hikes.”

Fed Up Friday

Call Now