The bond market flashed a major recession warning sign as the yield curve inverted this week. Meanwhile, Trump whipsawed markets when he appeared to blink in the never-ending trade war with China. That made for an interesting week for gold. In this week’s Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the events of the last few days and their impact on precious metals. He also remembers an important day in history that went mostly unnoticed in the mainstream.
The Federal Reserve has the US economy on monetary life support and Daily Reckoning managing editor Brian Maher says it will never again breathe on its own. As hedge fund manager Kyle Bass put it, the economy is trapped within the inescapable tractor beam of zero percent interest rates.
The price of gold surged this week, breaking all-time records in a number of currencies. It also did pretty well in dollar terms, hitting six-year highs and pushing above the key $1,500 level. Meanwhile, silver had its best single day in over three years. What drove this week’s precious metals rally? And can we expect it to continue? Host Mike Maharrey talks about it in this week’s Friday Gold Wrap.
Gold pushed above $1,500 again Wednesday (Aug. 7) and silver joined the party, charting its biggest single-day gain in nearly three years.
Silver surged 73 cents on the day for a 4.4% gain, closing above the key $17 level for the first time since January 2018.
Negative yielding debt has exceeded $15 trillion globally for the first time ever.
This pile of negatively yielding paper includes government and corporate bonds, along with some euro junk bonds.
WolfStreet called it a “race to hell.”
The Federal Reserve’s modest rate cut last week disappointed President Donald Trump. He wanted more and he was quick to criticize Powell and Company. The very next day, the president trumped the Fed by slapping down the tariff card.
Peter Schiff talked about the president’s move in a recent podcast.
Right before the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the last time in December 2018, Peter Schiff predicted the next move would be a rate cut. At the time, Fox Business anchor Liz Claman promised she would bring Peter back on if he was right.
He was. And she did.
The Fed cut rates for the first time in over a decade last week. Peter appeared on The Claman Countdown to talk about the cut, reiterating that it will not stop the coming recession. He also offered some advice to investors.
The Federal Reserve came through with its first interest rate cut in more than a decade this week. But with Jerome Powell trying desperately to convince everybody that this wasn’t the beginning of a long cutting cycle, the stock markets weren’t pleased. And neither was President Trump. So, he decided to put his own fingerprint on the markets, announcing new tariffs on Chinese products. In this week’s Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks it all down and explains how it impacted the gold market.
Markets are basically in “hurry up and wait” mode as they anticipate the Federal Reserve FOMC meeting next week. Will the central bank cut rates as anticipated? Or will Powell and company surprise everybody?
In the meantime, there was some interesting economic and market news to digest this week. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the European Central bank meeting and the continuing surge in silver prices. He also looks ahead toward the next week’s Fed meeting.
As gold has rallied over the last few months, silver has lagged behind. The silver-gold ratio spread to near-record levels. This tells us that silver is extremely undervalued compared to gold. But last Tuesday, that spread began to narrow ever-so-slightly and silver crossed a key price level on Thursday. Could this be the beginning of the breakout in silver we’ve been expecting? On this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down what’s going on in the silver market along with the big leg-up in gold this week. He also highlights the ever-growing levels of consumer debt and tells you the latest on China’s move to dump US bonds.
