1st Quarter: Stocks Down, Bonds Down, Oil & Gold Up

4.5.22 - 1st Quarter: Stocks & Bonds Down, Oil & Gold Up

Gold last traded at $1,923 an ounce. Silver at $24.32 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Tuesday on safe-haven buying and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks traded mixed as investors assessed the odds of a recession and the latest developments in Ukraine.

Forbes--"It's mostly about inflation, the kind that was thought to be transitory last year but then turned out to be more than transitory.

It's the inflation of oil prices that really kicked in during the 1st quarter and that stems from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the economic sanctions that followed and the general uneasiness of the geopolitical reality, to put it mildly.

Money flowed into assets thought to be more trustworthy than other assets and thus we have a lower equity market, a lower bond market, a raging higher petroleum market and a reawakened precious metals market....

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the 1st quarter in the oil market. West Texas Crude moved from an early January price of $75 all the way up to above $130...then down to around $100. This is the effect of Russia's idiotic invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the effect of the economic sanctions on Moscow that followed.

The yellow metal in the 1st quarter proved again that it's where a lot of people go when more than the usual amount of uncertainty arises. That's $1800 at the beginning of January, a retest of that area later in the month and then the straight-up, unstoppable stuff until mid-March. Gold hit above $2000 before sellers finally stepped up and brought it back to $1900 before that small bounce at the quarter's end.

So, inflation assets win while equity and bond assets lose as 2022 kicks off. It's an old story and it's being replayed yet again."