Gerald Celente: Middle East Wild Cards Could Bring Down Markets, Drive Up Gold (Podcast)
BY MONEY METALS
THEDAILYCOIN.ORG
DECEMBER 2, 2017
Coming up we’ll hear from the one and only Gerald Celente of the Trends Journal. Gerald weighs in on the rise of cypto-currencies, the massive volatility he sees ahead in the crypto world and the key geopolitical ticking time bomb that he sees having a big effect on gold prices. Don’t miss another outstanding interview with Gerald Celente, coming up after this week’s market update.
Gold and silver markets lost ground this week as investors drove the stock market up to new highs – again.
With tax cuts ne aring passage in the U.S. Senate, investors preemptively celebrated. The Dow Jones Industrials surged by more than 700 points through Thursday’s close. It’s the biggest week for the Dow since the Trump bump last November.
Getting the corporate tax rate down to 20% would certainly help boost earnings and could lift economic growth up to 4% per year. That’s the upside. The downside to the GOP tax plan is that the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates it will add $1 trillion to federal deficits.
If growth projections disappoint, that number could be even worse. If the pessimistic scenario plays out, then the U.S. dollar stands to take a big hit.
Right now, most investors are focused on the optimistic scenario. Tax cuts should give at least some kind of boost to the economy in 2018.
The risk for bulls is that the boost has already been priced in to the stock market. They may also have to contend with some negative side effects of deficit-fueled tax stimulus. For one, inflation could come perking back up in the months ahead.
For now, inflation expectations remain relatively muted and inflation hedges are struggling to garner investor interest. This week, gold futures contracts experienced a large net liquidation as speculators unloaded positions.
As of this Friday recording, the yellow metal trades at $1,274 an ounce, posting a weekly loss of 1.2%. Silver is down 4.1% this week to bring spot prices to $16.36. Platinum is off 1.0% to $936 per ounce, while palladium is up 2.0% to trade at $1,025.
With the exception of palladium which touched a multi-year again high earlier this week, precious metals markets are mired in trading ranges. Hard money continues to be overshadowed by crypto-money. The leading crypto-currency Bitcoin spiked to about $11,000 this week before retreating.
Many holders of bitcoins are sitting on some enormous profits. Those gains translate into tax liabilities whenever bitcoins get sold or traded for goods or services. Some Bitcoin aficionados may be under the false impression that Bitcoin transactions are private and untraceable – and therefore outside the reach of the IRS.
Well, on Thursday the IRS won a federal court case that forces the leading crypto-currency exchange Coinbase to hand over information about its customers. More than 14,000 customers who engaged in transactions involving at least $20,000 in Bitcoin will have their records turned over to the IRS. They could face back taxes and penalties which require them to sell more of their Bitcoin in order to pay.
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