John Batchelor Show: Gold on a tear. Palladium for geeks

 

Korn Ferry: Back in Business?

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

If anyone is looking for bad economic news these days, it’s not too hard to find. In the United States and Europe, gross domestic product numbers this past quarter were stunningly bad, perhaps none more than the 20% or so fall the United Kingdom is expected to report this week.

But that was last quarter. According to some little-noticed results, the all-too-critical manufacturing sector appears to have turned the corner. During July the factory sector grew in the US and in all three of Europe’s largest economies. Indeed, under one well-followed metric, the US, the UK, Germany, and France show that all four countries are now in “expansion” territory—after months of being in contraction from the pandemic earlier this year. “I am quite optimistic that this is for real,” says Yannick Binvel, Korn Ferry’s president of global industrial markets. Read more here.

Forbes: Gold Market Could Stay Volatile For Weeks, Experts Say

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Gold investors should brace themselves for weeks more of market whiplash. In other words, if the recent volatility in the price of bullion has your stomach churning and your eyes twitching with anxiety, you’re gonna need to get used to it fast. Read more here.

Barron's: Palladium Prices Hit Bump in Road With Lower Car Sales

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

After more than half a decade of record-busting price moves, the palladium market hit a bump in the road. The slowdown in the global economy, including the drop in car sales, is the problem.

“I would expect us to see sideways rangebound trade,” says Steve Dunn, head of exchange-traded funds at Aberdeen Standard, which runs the Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (PALL). Read more here.

WSJ: What Is the Economic VIX?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Many investors are familiar with the VIX, or volatility index, that measures how much investors expect to see the S&P 500 index fluctuate. 

But far fewer know even a little about a measure of volatility in economic growth called the Economic VIX Index, created by Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at investment-management and research firm Leuthold Group. The Economic VIX is important now because its history over the decades since World War II shows that stocks do best when economic volatility in the U.S. is at its lowest or its highest—and the pandemic is stoking economic volatility that Mr. Paulsen believes will be historic. Read more here.

Ronnotel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

WSJ: Silver vs. Gold: How the Two Metals Compare as Investments

By SIMON  CONSTABLE 

So far this year, investors in gold and silver have made out like bandits, especially when you compare the returns of the world’s two best-known precious metals with those of stocks.

SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of bullion, and iShares Silver Trust (SLV), an ETF that tracks silver prices, are up 34% and 57%, respectively, so far this year. That compares to just a 4% gain for SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 stock index.  Read more here.

Photo by Scottsdale Mint on Unsplash

WSJ: Long Short Funds Missed Their Moment

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

The stock-market volatility in the first half of 2020 should have been a near-perfect period for “long-short” mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to make a killing. 

Unfortunately, less than one in three such funds made money for investors during this tumultuous period. Read more here.

Balon Greyjoy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons