Precious metals news

Persistent inflation will keep interest rates elevated and recession risks high, the Journal’s latest survey of economists finds.

Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink have warned investors to brace for the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates higher for a longer period of time, bucking the view that the central bank will cut rates later in 2023.

The rally in the S&P 500 has been driven by only a handful of stocks, putting the index at risk of fresh lows if bond yields rise, according to Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson — one of the most bearish voices on Wall Street.

The European Central Bank is set to deliver three quarter-point increases in interest rates in May, June and July before ending the most aggressive bout of monetary tightening in its history, economists polled by Bloomberg say.

Hedge funds are betting the greenback’s longest stretch of weekly declines in almost three years is about to reverse after investors ramped up pricing for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts to extreme levels.

World stocks markets steadied near recent highs on Monday ahead of a slew of corporate earnings results this week due to reveal which economic sectors have been helped by higher rates to flourish and which have been hit.

After ending 2022 on an upward trend, China's gold market continued to rebound during the first quarter of 2023.
Wholesale gold demand in China during Q1 hit the highest first-quarter level since 2019. Meanwhile, gold imports charted the strongest start to a year since 2015.

By hiking interest rates, the Federal Reserve has pulled some of the monetary stimulus out of the economy. While the Fed hasn't done nearly enough to put the inflationary fire it lit with more than a decade of easy money, the cooling consumer price index (CPI) indicates that this has put a modest dent in price inflation — for now. But the Biden administration has opened the fiscal stimulus spigot even wider and this is mucking up the inflation fight. In fact, unless the federal government reins in spending, there is no way inflation will lose this fight.
That's not going to happen.

The massive French Pension Protests are a warning sign for the rest of the world.  Unfortunately, the Energy Cliff dynamics are making it impossible for the public and private pension systems to continue.  Watch as these types of protests spread throughout the world in the years ahead...

Being prepared for turbulent times ahead is key. With geopolitical and financial risks brewing, global growth slowing, US dollar weakening and real interest rates declining..

Sales of American Eagle and Buffalo gold bullion coins from the U.S. Mint experienced an incredible rally in March, rocketing from the prior month, and far beyond last year's sales figures from the same month. This resulted in a remarkable improvement in their first quarter totals, bringing them in line with last year's performance.

Gold prices went down almost 1% to $2020 an ounce on Friday, as the dollar rebounded slightly and as investors continue to adjust their expectations for the monetary policy and the economic outlook. The Fed is still seen delivering a 25bps hike next month although there are increasing expectations it could pause the tightening cycle after that. Despite Friday's fall, the bullion is up 0.8% on the week and holds close to levels not seen since March last year, prompted by a weaker dollar, and prospects that major central banks, and especially the Fed, are nearing the end of the tightening cycle.

All the signs point to a termination of the world’s fiat currency regime. And with it, there will be a radical change in central banking. Given that central banks in the western alliance are all technically bankrupt themselves, their survivability and that of their currencies is questionable.

Gold just set a couple of records, but you’d never know it from the relatively modest level of investor enthusiasm.

One more quarter-percentage-point interest rate hike can allow the Federal Reserve to end its tightening cycle with some confidence inflation will steadily return to the U.S. central bank's 2% target, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said.

Today, Representative Jared Golden (D-ME) published a piece calling for lawmakers to raise the debt limit and then negotiate a responsible budget deal. He laid out a framework to set discretionary levels and stabilize the national debt at 100 percent of GDP over the next two years,

The next few years will include several predictable fiscal policy deadlines that will force congressional action. Numerous provisions providing COVID relief expire at the end of the year. Many of the regular non-COVID deadlines could bring additional costs if Congress acts irresponsibly, or they could present an opportunity for Congress to reduce deficits.

So who in the world is the Digital Currency Monetary Authority?

Introducing my new retail sales charts of three-month moving averages to iron out the big month-to-month spikes and drops that clutter up the trends.

Recession odds increase as the Fed's tightening of monetary policy has broken something. Silicon Valley Bank was only the first domino.