Marc Cuniberti Gold, the so called “king of metals”, has left a lot of the retail investor’s radar screens since the advent of bitcoin and other so called “cyber coins”.
Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not but it’s definitely true. Not so much as the numbers are concerned, as gold seems to be on a new tear of late, breaking through the $2,000.00/oz. resistance level it had held for years and even its second resistance level of $2,200.00/oz.
Pressing up against the $2,300.00/oz. level as I pen this and up $40.00/oz. on April 2nd, many someone’s are obviously spending their money on it, or should I say investing in it.
With bitcoin having garnered about 1.4 trillion in funds from investors, gold sports a whopping 14.6 trillion market cap.
I can’t really say for sure why gold is popping right now, but I suspect it is reacting likes it usually reacts, that is to say it sniffs out inflation, jittery markets, societal and political upheaval, and government printing presses gone haywire. We can comfortably say we definitely have most if not all the above in today’s day and age.
Golds price topped the $2,000.00/oz. level briefly in mid-2020, mid-2022 and again early in 2023, only to back off each time. Here we sit in the spring of 2024 and this break out appears a little different. It has vaulted past those three previous highs and is a near vertical line right now. At least it was at the time of this writing.
That said, as often happens, once I publically mention something, it sneers it nose at me and backs off. So goes the fun of a financial columnist.
Both bitcoin and gold are tracking upwards and something is afoot to garner such moves in what could be called “anti-dollar” plays.
Not a whole lot of investors out there invest in either bitcoin or gold. One could say both are bought by the fringy investor. That is to say perhaps the conspiracy theorists and those that distrust governments and the paper dollars they use. Or should I say abuse?
Right or wrong, no matter who buys such things like bitcoin and gold, there is a fair amount of people buying both of these right now, evident by the price rise of the two.
The U.S. government is the largest holder of bitcoin with over 200,000 of them in its coffers. But don’t get to excited thinking Washington is a fan. Its stash of tokens was seized from cyber criminals and the dark web.
Governments, including ours, do buy gold however. Held in various places around the country, Fort Knox is well known, rightly so or not, for containing a heck of a lot of the yellow stuff, as do other central bank vaults around the world. The U.S. is said to possess 8,133 metric tons and we really don’t know where all of it is kept.
Probably a good thing.
It is said central banks hold gold to offset inflation and impart a sense of trust to their currency. Since gold has no counter party risk, is no one’s promise to pay and cannot be artificially reproduced, it is regarded at least by some as the only “real money”.
Governments on one hand possess it, but bad mouth it at the same time some might argue. The theory is they want to own it but might not like if you do.
Of course this view is hearsay and the stuff of conspiracy theorists.
I say this because I read enough business news daily to make a normal person puke, and I rarely if ever see it recommended by the major investment houses, brokerage firms or main stream analysts.
I do see it mentioned around the outer edges of investment newsletters. Those written by what you might call the more radical analysts and the so-called doomsayers of the world.
Even if financial advisory firms do recommend it, it is not a common recommendation or holding that I come across.
In conclusion, most of the press in the past few years has covered much more about the bitcoin movement than the price of gold, however the recent move in gold is indeed an interesting phenomenon that I’ll keep a close eye on.
This article expresses the opinion of Marc Cuniberti and is not meant as investment advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, nor represents the opinion of any bank, investment firm or RIA, nor this media outlet, its staff, members or underwriters. Mr. Cuniberti holds a B.A. in Economics with honors, 1979, and California Insurance License #0L34249 His insurance agency is BAP INC. insurance services. Email: [email protected]
