Gold Hits Record Highs!

Gold hit record highs in a number of currencies this week as trade war worries, geopolitical uncertainty and expectations of a slowing economy drove investors to seek safe haven.

While the yellow metal has soared in USD terms in recent weeks, as global geopolitical tensions rise and the "policy-maker idiocy" proxy spikes ($15 trillion of negative-yielding debt)...

More trade war tension was a big driver in the gold rally, but the recent surge in gold prices isn’t an isolated event. The yellow metal has been rallying for months. The yellow metal is up 17% since last December when plunging stock markets drove the Fed to initiate the “Powell Pause.”

The trade war isn’t the only factor pushing gold higher. For instance, Brexit uncertainty is driving the yellow metal up in the United Kingdom. The gold price in British pounds has skyrocketed 25% since May.

Generally weak economic data is also driving investor worry. Despite assurances from Powell and US government officials that the American economy is strong, the data tells a different story. Even as Powell was assuring us the domestic economy is fine, and the Fed’s worries are all global, we got more gloomy economic numbers. Data showed the ISM manufacturing index dropped to 51.2% in July. That’s the lowest level since mid-2016. Construction spending also declined by 1.3% in June. Meanwhile, jobless claims climbed modestly by 8,000 to 215,000 at the end of July.

Philips Futures analyst Benjamin Lu told CNBC he thinks all of the uncertainty will lead to more Fed rate cuts.

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