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Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason.
Coming up Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors joins me to share his comments on the main difference between gold and crypto-currencies, the fallout that will likely occur in the financial markets if Congress and the President can’t push through some much-needed deregulation and tax cuts, and thoughts on the environment for the precious metals in the months ahead. Don’t miss a wonderful interview with Frank Holmes, coming up after this week’s market update.
More new records for the stock market and a rising U.S. Dollar Index are combining to weigh on the precious metals markets once again. But metals prices are still managing to hold their own, closing Thursday down just slightly for the week.
Gold prices currently check in at $1,272 an ounce, down 0.7% since last Friday’s close. Silver is down a mere 0.1% this week to trade at $16.70. Similar story for the platinum group metals, which are relatively flat as well. Platinum prices come in at $915 per ounce, while palladium is trading up to $942 as of today’s recording, meaning palladium has traded above platinum for more than a full week now.
In conventional markets, optimism is reaching manic levels. This week, better-than-forecast American factory orders and renewed hopes for tax reform helped boost the dollar and equity markets.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution designed to help pave the way for the GOP Senate to act on taxes. But after the Senate Budget Committee gets its hands on the bill, it could look quite different than the version sent to it by the House.
There are vested political interests who are opposed to any major tax simplification: