Gold prices are having a powerful start to 2023. Data indicates that the precious metal is up $100 in January, marking its best start to the year since 2012. “The yellow metal is finding fresh demand from traders and investors seeing an improved outlook as last year’s headwinds, from rate hikes to rising yields and [the] dollar, become tailwinds as rate hikes eventually pause while yields and the dollar softens amid concerns about the economic outlook,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. In other news, as the Fed’s inflation fight continues, Bank of America is predicting a harder landing with more job losses in Q1.
Kitco News/Neils Christensen
Gold prices seeing their best start to the year since 2012, flirting with a technical bull market
The gold market has reached a significant milestone as prices overnight climbed above $1,940 an ounce, pushing it briefly into an official bull market.
While gold is slightly down from its overnight highs, prices are up nearly 20% from their two-year lows seen in November. February gold futures last traded at $1,938.70 an ounce.
Along with its bull-market status, so far, the precious metal is up $100 in the first month of 2023, its best start to the year since 2012.
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MoneyWise via Yahoo Finance/Jing Pan
BofA warns that the US economy will begin to lose 175,000 jobs per month during Q1 of 2023, expects a ‘harder landing’ rather than a softer one — here’s why
The latest jobs report shows that the U.S. labor market is in decent shape, but Bank of America sees trouble looming in the distance.
In December 2022, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 223,000, beating economists’ expectation of a 200,000 increase. It also means that America’s job growth is heading in the right direction.
Bank of America, however, expects nonfarm payroll gains to turn negative this year. During the first quarter of 2023, the bank projects that the U.S. will be losing roughly 175,000 jobs a month.
And it’s not just the labor market that’s going to take a hit.
“We are looking for a recession to begin in the first half of next year,” Bank of America’s head of U.S. economics Michael Gapen told CNN last October.
You can read the full article here, here.
Bloomberg via ZeroHedge/Simon White
Inflation Is Still Here Despite Hype Over Broad Money’s Collapse
The first-ever contraction in broad money should not be taken as a sign deflation is around the corner. On the contrary, a closer look at broad money’s components shows inflationary forces are alive and well.
Underweights in real assets, low long-term yields, and inverted yield curves show that the market continues to underestimate the long-term impact from persistent and entrenched inflation.
Broad money, or M2, just posted its first year-on-year decline in its 60-year history. But M2, and its narrow-money counterpart M1, are misunderstood in their impact on the economy.
You can read the full article here, here.
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