Gold has crashed through another key resistance level and is on track for its fourth consecutive weekly gain. What is driving gold into the spotlight? Host Mike Maharrey talks about it in this week’s episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast. He also raises an important question – what is all this going to look like when the recession really takes hold?
The following is a market update as it related to precious metals prepared by SchiffGold intern commodities analyst Jason Mezhibovsky and SchiffGold News managing editor Mike Maharrey.
Equities Overdone
Most mainstream analysts believe we remain in the midst of the longest bull market in history. If you consider the post-crisis S&P 500 low of March 9, 2009, as the beginning of this bull run, then it’s well over a decade long.
Peter Schiff believes the bull market actually ended last fall. He predicted that the December rate hike would be the last. Turns out he was correct in that prediction.
Last week was a good one for the stock market. Peter Schiff raised an important question in his latest podcast: why?
Answer: it’s all about the Fed.
Everybody is giddy because they think the central bank is going to save the day once again. In this podcast, Peter explains why they are wrong.
There are two major factors driving markets right now – fears that tariffs are going to push the global economy into recession and hope that the Federal Reserve and other central banks will rescue it. What are the markets getting right? And what are they getting wrong? Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey talks about it.
In December, Peter Schiff predicted that the Federal Reserve was about to hike rates for the last time and that the next step would be rate cuts. Yesterday, Jerome Powell made comments widely interpreted to signal the rising likelihood of a rate cut. The Fed chair dropped the word “patient” from his vocabulary, saying the central bank would respond as “as appropriate” to the perceived economic impacts of tariffs and other economic data.
Peter appeared on Fox Business Countdown to the Closing Bell with Liz Claman to talk about what’s next up for the Fed and how it will impact the economy.
Oil and gold are marching in opposite directions. If history is any indication, that’s not good news for the US economy.
Oil prices fell sharply starting late last week and through the early part of this week. On Monday, West Texas Intermediate crude touched $53.25, the lowest level since February. Meanwhile, the price of gold surged, blasting through the $1,300 mark to reach prices not seen in more than a year.
President Trump launched Tariff War 2.0 yesterday. And we haven’t even wrapped up Trade War 1 yet.
The president shocked markets when he announced a 5% tariff on all Mexican products in an effort to force Mexico to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigration into the US. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey gives you the details and talks about the impact of these new tariffs on the markets. He also discusses what the bond market is telling us about a looming recession, some interesting news out of Russia, and the latest goings-on in the silver market.
Consumer confidence was much stronger than expected in the latest report that came out Friday. Consumer sentiment jumped to 102.4, well above the 97.5 that was forecast. This was a 15-year high in this University of Michigan index.
In his podcast Friday, Peter Schiff said he thinks the reason consumers are so optimistic is the constant positive rhetoric they are bombarded with. They are constantly told that the economy is booming. But in reality, they are falling for a big con-job.
The markets have been up and down this week, riding the trade war roller coaster. And analysts can’t seem to decide if the data of the day is telling us that the economy is sound or slowing. But we do know one thing for sure – there is a lot of debt out there, and there are signs that it might be catching up with us. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks student loan and auto loan debt, and what it be telling us about the economy. He also covers some of the latest trade war news and the last batch of economic data.
Auto loan delinquencies have surged to the highest level since 2011 and are approaching levels seen at their peak during the Great Recession.
The percentage of outstanding auto loans in serious delinquency (90 days or more past due) jumped to 4.69% in the first quarter of 2019, according to the latest data from the New York Fed. At their peak during the recession, auto loan delinquencies hit 5.27%.