Rates

There has never been so much money in circulation. Never have markets had so much liquidity to pursue assets at such high valuations, underpinned mainly by their ability to generate growth via the services associated with the products and offers they provide.

The German economy is suffering its sharpest fall in orders since the 2009 crisis, while global financial markets, particularly in the US, continue to soar.

The bad news is piling up for France, prompting some to take concrete decisions, such as transferring their capital abroad.

Could Donald Trump's election put the brakes on gold's rise? In 2016, the Republican candidate's victory in the US presidential election led to a €100 drop in the price of gold in euros, with the price falling from €1,180 to €1,080 in the four weeks following the election.

Has the gold price reached its ceiling, or is it even in a bubble, as it was in the early 1980s, and is a significant correction imminent? There are strong reasons to believe that the gold price is not yet in a region of extreme overvaluation.

The Fed has cut rates by 50 basis points, but so far this has proved to be a resounding failure: rates are rising, once again threatening the bond market and real estate. A few Nasdaq stocks are playing the role of safe havens, while the price of gold is still climbing silently and parabolically.

This week, we'll look at a few ratio charts of silver vs. some major US stock indexes to see just how inexpensive silver remains against equities.

Just over a year ago, I wrote that physical gold had become more reliable than Treasury bills, a trend now confirmed by Bank of America, which anticipates a potential replacement of Treasury bills by gold as a safe-haven asset, despite JPMorgan's reservations.

The BRICS nations' New Development Bank is still a modest alternative to the World Bank and IMF, held back by limited capital, dependence on the dollar and imperfect governance. However, global rebalancing could work in its favour.

The fall in China's property market and the rise in interest rates in the United States are prompting consumers to favour savings and shun property in favour of gold.