Tag Archives: Geopolitics

Overview:  Escalating tensions in Europe and comments from Bank of Japan Ueda that spurred speculation of a December hike are the main drivers of the foreign exchange market today. The yen is the strongest of the G10 currencies, up about 0.65%, while the euro is the weakest, off a little more than 0.25%, and sterling is down almost as much. Most of the other G10 currencies are little changed. Led by central European currencies, most emerging market currencies are...

Overview: The dollar has been confined to narrow ranges ahead of the US CPI report. Given the backup of US rates and the stronger-than-expected jobs growth, the greenback's performance has been unimpressive. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand signaled that it was in no hurry to cut rates and it helped underpin the New Zealand dollar. Up about 0.2% today, it is leading the G10 currencies higher. Strong earnings from TSMC may have helped underpin the Taiwanese dollar...

The year 2024 is poised to be a critical period for the global economy and it already appears to be fraught with economic and geopolitical challenges, casting a dark shadow over the global landscape. Signs of a looming economic downturn are becoming increasingly evident and the many challenges we faced over the past year will certainly remain with us for many months to come. Economic and monetary landscape  Central bankers in most advanced economies have already all but...

The year 2024 is poised to be a critical period for the global economy and it already appears to be fraught with economic and geopolitical challenges, casting a dark shadow over the global landscape. Signs of a looming economic downturn are becoming increasingly evident and the many challenges we faced over the past year will certainly remain with us for many months to come. Economic and monetary landscape  Central bankers in most advanced economies...

The big news in gold is two-fold right now; gold hit new all-time highs in several currencies and central bank demand for physical gold remains strong hitting a year-to date record in Q3 this year.  Gold at $2,000?  So whilst the headlines were all about dollar-denominated gold showing us that it’s still destined for levels north of $2,000 the real news is about other currencies and gold. Ahead of yesterday’s FOMC announcement the price of the yellow metal hit...

In 1983 a total of 6,840 gold bars were stolen from a high security vault in Heathrow in what is still considered to be ‘the crime of the century’. 40 years on and the gold heist is still the biggest single-theft of gold in history. What’s incredible is that the perpetrators never even expected to steal any gold. They were instead expecting to find around £3 million in cash. After failing to get into the targeted vault the armed robbers discovered three tons of gold...

Those watching the gold price and price of silver will have noticed the sharp uptick following the Federal Reserve’s announcement, yesterday. This was despite the Fed doing exactly what everyone expected them to do. For now, the Federal Reserve is sticking to its relatively well-telegraphed plan but how long will it be until they need to move the goalposts in order to do so? . Gold and Silver prices rose sharply on the Fed’s statement on Wednesday. The change of...

It’s that time again when the US government has to prepare itself for an internal battle to raise the debt ceiling so it can meet various obligations. This is a merry dance that has been danced before, as we mention below. For sure, every time it happens fewer and fewer people are convinced of the trustworthiness of the US dollar. This combined with the recent announcement by Saudi Arabia of its willingness to consider trading in currencies other than the US Dollar...

Anyone who has decided to buy gold, or follows the gold price will be aware of how powerful the US Federal Reserve is. This year the Federal Reserve will turn 110 years old, only in recent years is dollar hegemony appearing to falter. Below we look at the central bank’s origins and three lessons we can learn from the history of the world’s most powerful bank, in order to help our investment decisions in 2023.  Is the FED’s institutional history about to repeat...

Today we ask, what is wealth? As we start a new year many will be looking at their portfolios and wondering what 2023 will have in store for them. Similar to 2022, we suspect there will be a lot of unknowns. As with anything unforeseen, it’s a good idea to have some insurance. This is why there were record levels of gold buying last year, and we expect the same in the coming months; because people want to protect their wealth with the insurance that gold offers....