Gold Standard News Daily

4.23.24 - Ray Dalio: Gold a "good diversifier"

Gold last traded at $2,322 an ounce. Silver at $27.28 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Swiss America has always advised our clients to diversify a portion of their portfolio into precious metals to hedge against geopolitical and economic turmoil. Many billionaires follow this same advice but they never talk about it until we are in these types of market conditions. Yes, today is a great time to enter the market if you have yet to follow this advice but it's advice that stands the test of time in all market conditions.

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio says he's owning gold to hedge the risk of debt and inflation crises -Business Insider

by Jennifer Sor

Ray Dalio is holding onto gold as a buffer against risks stemming from higher inflation and a potential debt crisis hitting the economy.

The billionaire investor and former Bridgewater Associates CEO has pointed to mounting debt balances around the world, with the US debt notching $34 trillion for the first time ever this year. Debt problems have also plagued China, Japan, and European nations — which poses a big risk for the currencies in those nations, he wrote in a post on LinkedIn this week.

"History and logic show that when there are big risks that the debts will either 1) not be paid back or 2) be paid back with money of depreciated value, the debt and the money become unattractive," Dalio wrote on Thursday.

When nations are deeply indebted, central banks are likely to print out more cash to pay off the debt, he noted, which is itself a problem.

"This prevents a big debt squeeze from happening by devaluing the money (i.e., inflation)," Dalio warned. "Gold, on the other hand, is a non-debt-backed form of money. It's like cash, except unlike cash and bonds, which are devalued by risks of default or inflation, gold is supported by risks of debt defaults and inflation."

That's the main reason Dalio says he has gold in his own investment portfolio, he added, calling it a "good diversifier" against the backdrop of high debt levels.

Gold has been on a record-setting run in recent weeks. Investors have been keen to buy the precious metal amid the looming risk of recession and inflation remaining stuck at elevated levels, as well as fears of wider geopolitical turmoil out of the Middle East. READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.22.24 - Fed: 1,804 banks tapped emergency lending facility

Gold last traded at $2,390 an ounce. Silver at $28.67 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you were wondering how the banks have fared after the wave of failures we faced last year, wonder no more. Many of them continue to struggle. What will happen now that their safety net is no longer in place?

Fed says 1,804 banks and other institutions tapped emergency lending facility -Yahoo! Finance

(Reuters) - Some 1,804 depository institutions tapped the emergency lending facility set up last March in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, amounting to about 20% of all eligible firms, the Federal Reserve said on Friday.

About 95% of the borrowers, which included banks, credit unions, savings associations, and branches and agencies of foreign banks, had less than $10 billion in assets, the U.S. central bank said in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report.

The Bank Term Funding Program, as it was called, was aimed at addressing a liquidity crunch after a run on deposits led to the failures of SVB and Signature Bank and forced financial authorities to stage a rescue of the sector.

The facility lent on collateral without applying the usual haircuts and the loans were made on cheap terms.

The program stopped making new loans on March 11, a year after its creation. At its peak it extended a total of $165 billion in loans, with terms of up to a year. It is expected to close down completely by next March. READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.19.24 - Is America's Economic Standing at Risk?

Gold last traded at $2,390 an ounce. Silver at $28.67 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The IMF is sounding the alarm that America's profligate spending and ever-growing debt is highly problematic. The financial institutions expects we will reach a new record deficit in 2025 that will be "more than triple the level in other advanced economies." That's a frightening prediction. What can you do to protect yourself? Diversify into inflation-proof assets now.

IMF sounds alarm on ballooning US national debt: 'Something will have to give' -Fox Business

by Megan Henney

The astronomical rise in the U.S. national debt poses "significant risks" to the global economy and threatens to continue fueling high inflation, according to a new warning from the International Monetary Fund.

In its latest Fiscal Monitor, the Washington-based institution said that it expects the U.S. to record a fiscal deficit of 7.1% in 2025 – more than triple the level in other advanced economies.

"Loose fiscal policy in the United States exerts upward pressure on global interest rates and the dollar," Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF’s fiscal affairs department, told reporters. "It pushes up funding costs in the rest of the world, thereby exacerbating existing fragilities and risks."

Under current policies, public debt in the U.S. is projected to nearly double by 2053. The IMF identified "large fiscal slippages" in the U.S. in 2023, with government spending surpassing revenue by 8.8% of GDP – a 4.1% increase from the previous year, despite strong economic growth.

If this trend continues, the Congressional Budget Office anticipates the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion in the next decade. Higher interest rates are also compounding the pain of higher debt.

Should that debt materialize, it could risk America's economic standing in the world. READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.18.24 - Is the stock market headed for hard 'reset'?

Gold last traded at $2,380 an ounce. Silver at $28.23 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The bulls of the stock market have been running for quite some time now, full steam ahead. Lately though, bearish signals have started to sound. Are investors listening to those signals after more than a decade of no-end-in-sight returns? Complacency may mean some hard times ahead for those not heeding the warnings.

The stock market is headed for a hard 'reset' that could take years to recover from, CIO says -Business Insider

by Jennifer Sor

Stocks have been in the midst of a long bull market, but there are signs that it's finally going to run out of steam and will inevitably be followed by a bear market and a difficult "reset," according to Chris Vermeulen,CIO of Technical Traders.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the investment chief pointed to the recent run-up in defensive assets, like precious metals, energy stocks, and industrial stocks. Those areas all typically do well in the late stage of a bull market, which is inevitably followed by a bear market or a "financial reset," Vermeulen said.

Investors are likely heading into another bear market, similar to the ones that followed the dot-com bubble and the 2008 financial crisis, he predicted. That could end up sparking painful stock losses for investors, with people seeing their wealth decline as much as 30%-50% over the next year, he warned.

"I think we're coming into a major market top, more or less a financial reset," Vermeulen said Tuesday. "It's short-term, temporarily painful. But we need markets to reset. We need regular pullbacks and corrections in order for the market to keep going up."

That reset could also come with a recession, Vermeulen said, with industrial stocks in particular signaling a slowdown for the economy. While the sector has done well in recent months, buyers of industrial goods typically upgrade their equipment at the end of an economic growth cycle, due to "huge delays" between slowing business and orders for new machinery.

"They don't realize we're coming to the end of a growth cycle, and the music is about to stop," Vermeulen said of US firms. "Industrial stocks have just continued to muscle their way higher. They're hitting all-time highs, and that is a sign that we're going to see these companies eventually start to slow down." READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.17.24 - Goldman Sachs Makes Gold Price Prediction

Gold last traded at $2,372 an ounce. Silver at $28.28 an ounce.

Brace for the S&P 500 to crash 30% before an even bigger collapse after the election, markets guru David Brady warns - Business Insider

For months now, domestic markets have been awash in volatility. Many of the great financial minds have been warning of an impending crash. CEOs are cashing out their positions of their own stocks en masse. Is this all just coincidence or do they see the writing on the wall?

by Theron Mohamed

Prepare for stocks to plunge 30%, rebound before the presidential election, then crash to their lowest level in 14 years, a markets analyst warned.

The S&P 500 is poised to plummet from over 5,000 points to an 18-month low of 3,500 points, David Brady said on the latest "Thoughtful Money" podcast episode .

Brady is a money manager, former foreign exchange trader, and the author of "The FIPEST Report" which analyzes metals and miners. He argued that stocks are massively overvalued , investors face much greater downside risk than potential upside, and a sell-off looks assured.

However, he predicted the Federal Reserve would step in to reverse the coming decline by cutting interest rates and growing its balance sheet — especially as the Biden administration will want a strong stock market and economy going into the November election.

However, he cautioned the rebound wouldn't last given mounting domestic and international pressure on the economy.

"My two cents is short term, 20-30% drop, but then the Fed responds as it always does and the market goes up," Brady said. "After the election, stocks are going to get hammered."

"I expect the stock market to drop because of what's going on in the economy and elsewhere in the world," he said about his anticipated post-election decline. READ MORE

BRICS: Goldman Sachs Makes Major Gold Price Prediction -Watcher.Guru

The price of gold has a lot going for it these days. With geopolitical tensions rising, the BRICS nations acquiring their own reserves and US economic policy continuing to degrade the dollar; all signs point to a banner year for the yellow metal. Goldman Sachs has joined the growing chorus of financial powerhouses calling for a major uptick this year.

by Joshua Ramos

Amid the ongoing BRICS acquisition strategy that has driven global interest, Goldman Sachs has made a major gold price prediction. Indeed, the investment bank forecasted the metal to reach a price of $2,700 in 2024 after its tremendous value increase throughout the year thus far.

The financial institution released an investment note that reevaluated Gold’s position amid its strong performance. The metal had been thriving, recently hitting another all-time high this year, surpassing $2,400 this weekend. One of the most important catalysts for the increased value of the metal has been the BRICS alliance. Indeed, the collective has influenced diversification strategies for Central Banks throughout the world.

Throughout the year, the price of gold has seen its value steadily increase. However, this extends to December of 2023, when the asset surpassed the $2,135 mark for the first time. That would set a trend for the metal, which has continued to set all-time marks throughout the year.

Now, that development has caught the attention of one of the world’s most prominent financial institutions. Specifically, amid BRICS and global interest, Goldman Sachs has made major gold price predictions. Indeed, the bank has forecasted the metal to reach a price of $2,700 by the end of the year.

In the investor note, the bank said that “none of those traditional factors adequately explain the velocity and scale of the gold price move so far this year.” Subseuqnlety, one of the biggest reasons for its increase is tied to macroeconomic concerns and the metal’s status as a haven asset. READ MORE

Silver’s Record Industrial Demand and Deficit to Underpin Prices -Yahoo! Finance

While gold has received most of the attention lately, silver is still shining brightly as a safe haven metal amid a world in turmoil. With demand up and supplies running low, silver is poised to break records of its own this year.

by Yvonne Yue Li

(Bloomberg) -- After a strong start to the year, silver should remain supported by record industrial usage and a supply deficit, according to the Silver Institute.

Industrial consumption hit an all-time high in 2023 and is expected to expand another 9% this year, driven by green-related applications such as solar panels, the institute said in its World Silver Survey report on Wednesday. That will help the metal record a fourth straight annual supply shortage.

Silver, known as the devil’s metal because of its often wild swings, is trading near a three-year high as it tracks a rally in gold that has partly been fueled by demand for a haven amid geopolitical tensions. Silver prices will be underpinned by the persistent deficit, said Philip Newman, managing director at consultancy Metals Focus, which was commissioned to produce the report.

Silver has rallied 20% already this year to trade at about $28.55 an ounce in London. Prices could hit $30 in the near term, Newman said in an interview. READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.16.24 - Gold is Back

Gold last traded at $2,394 an ounce. Silver at $28.31 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is more than meets the eye in the recent run up in gold prices. Sure, inflation plays a role; but many investors turn to gold in times of instability and turmoil. Gold may simply be offering a hedge right now, but it also may have reached a tipping point which could push it exponentially higher.

Gold is back — and it has a message for us -Financial Times

by Rana Foroohar

It’s easy to mock gold bugs, but their moment may finally have come. The precious metal has been breaking out recently amid higher than expected inflation in the US, and general anxiety over everything from geopolitics to the November presidential elections to where monetary policy and markets go from here.

All these things are predictable reasons for gold to surge. But there are deeper, longer-term messages in this rise that investors should pay very close attention to.

Let’s start with inflation. Whatever happens over the next few quarters, I’ve long thought that we were in for a period of “higher for longer” inflation. Aside from the possibility of a technology-driven productivity miracle, it’s hard to think of a macro-trend at the moment that isn’t inflationary.

The economy is running hot — from fiscal stimulus in the US to more supply chain redundancy as countries de-risk, to all the capital investment required for the clean energy transition and re-industrialisation in rich countries. Even ageing US baby boomers are likely to be an inflationary force, since they have health, time and plenty of money to spend.

Gold is historically an inflation hedge. But it’s also something investors turn to when they are worried about the stability of the status quo. It will languish for decades, then break out when the world is at a major pivot point, as it is now. READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

4.15.24 - 'Opportunity of a lifetime' for gold and silver

Gold last traded at $2,385 an ounce. Silver at $28.93 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gold and silver have been in the headlines recently, but many people interested in precious metals fear they have already been priced out. According to MarketWatch, the perfect time to buy may just be this week. We are encouraging our clients to continue adding to their holdings as prices find their footing. Many experts are still calling for a gold price of $3000/oz by Q4.

Iran, Israel developments could lead to the 'opportunity of a lifetime' for gold and silver -MarketWatch

By Myra P. Saefong

The opportunity for investors to buy gold and silver at cheaper prices may unfold this week, an analyst said following Iran's drone and missile attacks on Israel over the weekend.

The escalation of unprecedented tension between Iran and Israel is going to "show up in the markets as fear," said Peter Spina, founder and president of investor websites GoldSeek.com and SilverSeek.com.

If there is a major financial market selloff -- "a liquidity event", there could be some spillover into precious metals, he said. A selloff in the stock market can, as it has in the past, lead investors to seek out ways to cover their losses, including a sale of their precious-metals holdings.

"This could be a buying opportunity of a lifetime for precious metals," said Spina. "The gold price is reflecting all sorts of problems, risks, and now the fear-war premium will likely be added should there be no quick de-escalation to these very serious events in the Middle East." READ MORE

RealMoneyBlog - Free daily/weekly email

To see older blog posts CLICK HERE