Latest Gold & Silver Price News
Owning Real Assets Amid Surreal Markets
In the current market environment, little else matters other than momentum. What’s moving up gets chased higher still by investors. And what can be moved up by any means is pursued by speculators who hope to jump-start a momentum trade. It’s all being fueled by cheap money and government “stimulus.” The consequences? The U.S. stock market trades at an historically high premium to GDP (the so-called “Buffett indicator”). Speculative trading frenzies in stocks such as GameStop defy any kind of fundamental analysis. Manic up moves in unbacked cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (which hit a record high today and is nearing a total market value of $1 trillion) seem to suggest […]
Could Silver “Do a Palladium”?
Palladium was manipulated for years. It had the largest short position relative to its size, while physical demand rose inversely to decreasing supply. In 2018, demand became so large that it overwhelmed the shorts. Physical palladium could not meet the market’s needs and prices exploded. Shorts eventually decreased their positions until they got to a more sustainable level. For many years, the platinum/palladium ratio, shown on proprietary charts, averaged 2.4 to 1 in favor of platinum, stretched as high as 5:1 in 2009, but then collapsed for a decade into 2020, to where 1 ounce of palladium would buy 5 ounces of platinum! Today, much like what was the case with […]
Major Optimism for Platinum, Silver, and Copper
Attention in the metals markets shifted this week from silver to copper and platinum. While big moves in silver and gold prices may be coming down the road, the monetary metals are currently taking a back seat to electrical and automotive metals. A massive push by the Biden administration to replace gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles is helping to crank up demand for copper. Anything involving electricity involves copper – and lots of it. Electric vehicles and their massive batteries contain an average of 180 pounds of the metal. That’s six times the copper that’s used in gasoline cars. Even larger quantities of copper are required for EV charging stations […]
Energy Metals Lead the Charge
Gold and silver aren’t the only viable plays in the metals space – and they aren’t currently the leaders. On Wednesday, both copper and platinum rallied up to multi-year highs. Rhodium, meanwhile, currently commands $21,000 per ounce – yes, per ounce – making it one of the most valuable elements on the planet. What’s driving these “energy” metals? Besides ongoing currency depreciation and the risks of higher inflation, which will help boost all hard assets over time, rising demand for electricity in general and electric vehicles in particular. President Joe Biden recently decreed that the federal government must transition its entire fleet of cars, vans, and trucks to electric motors. […]
How Precious Metals Generate Positive Real Returns
One of the most bullish backdrops for precious metals is an environment of negative real interest rates – that is, when bonds and cash yield less than the inflation rate. With inflationary pressures picking up and the Federal Reserve showing no signs of lifting its benchmark rate anytime soon, real short-term rates could fall even further into negative territory in the months ahead. Long-term yields, however, have been moving slightly higher in nominal terms. Higher bond yields have helped lift the U.S. Dollar Index and restrain gold and silver prices so far in 2021. The 30-year yield rose to nearly 2% on Friday. While still quite low historically, a breakout […]
Be Patient, Silver Investors… It’s Only a Matter of Time
A wild week of trading across asset markets has left investors wondering what represents real value – and whether it even matters anymore. Stratospheric GameStop shares came crashing back to earth after their gravity-defying run up. The stock had clearly been pumped to ridiculously overvalued levels based on all conventional metrics. But that didn’t deter buyers who believed they could push it to $1,000 per share before cashing out. After dropping over 85% its nominal price peak, perhaps the GameStop craze has ended just as abruptly as it began. Meanwhile, some online speculators have jumped aboard other bizarre market frenzies. For example, the crypto token Dogecoin – which launched a […]
How to Survive a Silver-Gold Sucker Punch
Anyone who owns precious metals, mining shares or metals’ ETFs knows the drill. First, gold and silver begin to establish an uptrend on the charts. Analysts (like us) start writing about how prices are getting ready to make an upside run. Then “out of nowhere” thousands of highly margined futures contracts hit the market on the short side, “re-painting” the charts, sending terror into the hearts of stackers and those who believe in “honest money.” The reality is that honest money is being manipulated for personal gain by dishonest traders, enabled by “regulators” who, to put it charitably, look the other way. It can be disheartening. It can make you […]
Investors Prepare for the Incoming Regime in Washington
Last year provided extraordinary challenges to Americans as well as people around the world. Hundreds of thousands of deaths were attributed to the Chinese coronavirus. The economic carnage and the attendant death and suffering along with the loss of civil liberties was grossly underreported. We’ve seen one economic recession already and are likely in the early stages of a more extended depression. 2020 was capped by a rancorous presidential election with lots of allegations (and at least some evidence) of vote fraud glossed over by the legislatures, courts, media, and official investigators responsible for guaranteeing fair elections. Americans enter 2021 more divided than at any time since the Civil War. […]
Biden Bailout, Democrat Takeover to Drive Americans into Gold
As investors await the incoming Biden administration and the uncertainties that a transition of power may bring, precious metals markets regained some ground through Thursday’s close but have pulled back again on Friday, especially silver and platinum. Precious metals prices and financial markets have seemingly been unaffected by recent political turmoil. Investors have been nonchalant in the face of Capitol unrest and a second impeachment of President Donald Trump – not to mention fresh new records in daily COVID deaths. Against this unfavorable backdrop, the stock market continues to hit new highs on an almost daily basis. Fundamental analysts are left scratching their heads as to what’s fueling such elevated […]
Time to ‘Reset’ Your Investment Portfolio in 2021?
World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab vows, “a renewed focus on public health and resilience, net-zero pledges and the arrival of Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics—all but ensure that 2021 will be a new ‘Year Zero.’” If global elites have their way, 2021 will be the year of the “Great Reset.” They believe now, after the coronavirus and lockdown policies have inflicted a heavy toll on the public, is the perfect opportunity to implement their technocratic vision. Their longstanding plans to transform economies in the name of various “sustainability” and “equity” goals are being aggressively implemented. The reset that is coming may not necessarily be the one that globalist central planners are trying […]
A Year Like No Other for Precious Metals… and Everything Else
Well, it’s been a year like no other in so many ways. “Unprecedented” is an often-overused term. But there truly is no precedent for much of what transpired in public health, politics, the monetary system, the economy, and markets. More than 300,000 Americans reportedly lost their lives while infected with COVID-19. Less widely publicized was a spike in deaths of despair due to lockdowns and related social ills that drove all too many into depression and drug addiction. Or the deaths that were caused, or will be caused, by Americans putting off or avoiding doctor’s visits. America’s cities burned while the mainstream media egged on anti-police protests. In their aftermath, […]
Outlook 2021: Supply/Demand Fundamentals for Precious Metals
The supply and demand fundamentals for precious metals markets got thrown into disarray this year, leading to heightened volatility – first on the downside, then on the upside. Although gold and silver will finish 2020 below their highs for the year, gold is still headed for an annual return of close to 25%; silver around 45%. Can hard assets investors look forward to further price appreciation in 2021? Yes, but…there are some near-term risks to the favorable long-term supply/demand outlook. Assuming economic conditions begin normalizing next year, we would expect demand – especially from industrial users – to increase. Mine production would likely rebound as well. The mining industry, like […]
Outlook 2021: Further U.S. Dollar Debasement Ahead
In a year that was marred by a global pandemic and a wave of economic restrictions that crippled many small businesses, financial markets proved to be resilient. Of course, that resilience owes in no small part to the unprecedented outpouring of stimulus from Congress and the Federal Reserve. More stimulus is on the way. On Sunday, President Donald Trump signed the latest COVID relief package into law. Trump had earlier blasted the bill as a pork-laden “disgrace” with inadequate $600 direct payments. Under pressure to avert a government shutdown and keep unemployment benefits flowing, Trump finally relented. And he will continue to push the Senate to take up his $2,000 […]
