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Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason.
Coming up we’ll hear from Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors. Frank reveals some very bullish fundamentals that he sees developing for the precious metals in the coming months and also shares some information on an exciting new gold fund. Don’t miss another great interview with The Mining Journal’s gold fund manager of the year for 2016, Frank Holmes, coming up after this week’s market update.
Well, as certain United States Senators were finding new ways to kneecap Obamacare repeal efforts this week, the Federal Reserve stood pat on interest rates.
Janet Yellen and company left their benchmark funds rate unchanged as expected on Wednesday. Fed officials have expressed frustration in recent months that their inflation target of 2% hasn’t officially been met. Consumer and producer prices have stayed relatively flat thanks in large part to low prices in key commodities such as copper and crude oil.
But this week oil prices surged 7% to just under $50 per barrel. Crude still needs to break out above the $55 level to make new highs for the year and establish an uptrend.
Copper prices are also on the move. The red metal surged nearly 6% this week to hit a fresh two-year high.
If the story of rising economic growth and more manufacturing jobs under Donald Trump’s leadership has legs, then copper could continue to climb. However, once the economic indicators start turning down and recession fears gin up, then the preferred metal for investors to hold will be gold.
Checking in with the gold market, spot prices currently come in at $1,268 an ounce, up 1.0% for the week. The yellow metal is now trading