Tag Archives: Daily Market Update

– London house prices falling at fastest pace since 2009 – Values fell by 2.6% in year through January – London house prices likely to be weakest in UK over next five years  – Inflated prices make London property more exposed to economic and political shocks – Worries over house prices are having a knock-on effect in wider economy– Physical gold to act as much needed hedge against falling property prices A new study by...

– Market turmoil as trade war concerns deepen and Trump appoints war hawk Bolton – Oil, gold and silver jump as ‘Russia China Hawk’ Bolton appointed – Oil up 4%, gold up 2.2% and silver up 1.6% this week (see table) – Stocks down sharply – Nikkei down 4.5%, S&P 4.3% & Nasdaq 5.5% – Bolton scares jittery markets already shell-shocked by US’ tariffs against China – Currency wars and trade wars tend to proceed...

– Gold gained 1.8% and silver 2.5% to $1,333/oz and $16.60/oz yesterday – Gold climbs as Fed increases interest rates by 0.25% – now 1.5% to 1.75% range – Dovish Fed Chair Powell plans fewer than expected rate hikes in 2018 – Markets disappointed at lack of hawkish comments from new Fed Chair  – Dollar LIBOR rises to highest level since November 2008 – $200 trillion worth of dollar-denominated financial products...

Key Metric LIBOR OIS Signals Major Credit Concerns – Widening of the spread between LIBOR OIS (overnight index swap) rate raises concerns – Spread jumped to 9 year widest spread, rising to 54.6bps, most since May 2009. – Libor recently moved to over 2% for first time since 2008 – Wider spread usually associated with heightened credit concerns Editor: Mark O’Byrne Major credit concerns are back as one of the key U.S....

– $8.8B Sprott Inc. sees higher gold on massive consumer debt, defaults & bankruptcies – Rising and record U.S. debt load may cause financial stress, weaken dollar and see gold go higher– Massive government and consumer debt eroding benefits of wage growth (see chart) by Bloomberg Rising U.S. interest rates, usually bad news for gold, are instead feeding signs of financial stress among debt-laden consumers and...

– Gold Cup at Cheltenham – ‘The Olympics’ of the European horse racing calendar   – Gold Cup trophy contains 10 troy ounces of gold – worth £9,000 – £620 million bets on horses, 230,000 pints of Guinness will be drunk, 9.2 tonnes of potato eaten  – Since the 5th century BC, gold has been the ultimate prize to award champions and gold has been constantly and universally awarded as top prize  – Gold, like the summit of...

Hungary’s Gold Repatriation Adds To Growing Protest Against US Dollar Hegemony – Hungarian National Bank (MNB) to repatriate 100,000 ounces gold from Bank of England– Follows trend of Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Belgium each looking to bring gold back to home soil– Hungary one of the smallest gold owners amongst central banks, with just 5 tonnes– Central bank gold purchases continue to be major drivers of gold...

Gold Protects As Cashless Society Threatens Vulnerable – Swedish authorities concerned cashless society is happening ‘too quickly’ and heading into ‘negative spiral’– Only 25% of Swedes paid in cash at least once a week in 2017, 36% never use cash– Cash usage in Sweden falling both as share of GDP and in nominal terms– Sweden may be world’s first economy to introduce a cryptocurrency, the e-krona– Cashless is not a...

Stock Market Selloff Showed Gold Can Reduce Portfolio Risk  – Recent stock market selloff showed gold can deliver returns and reduce portfolio risk– Gold’s performance during stock market selloff was consistent with historical behaviour– Gold up nearly 10% in last year but performance during recent selloff was short-lived– The stronger the market pullback, the stronger gold’s rally– WGC: ‘a good time for investors to...

Women’s Pension Crisis Highlights Dangers To Savers International Women’s Day highlights the underreported UK Women’s pension crisis 2.66 million affected by UK government’s change to state pension act Women’s pension crisis is one of many in the UK, where there is a £710bn deficit for prospective retirees Changes by government highlights the counterparty risks pensions are exposed to Global problem as pensions gap of...