
As the new decade begins, precious metals have started the year well ahead of the January 2019 levels, but mostly still showing lower gains than equities until the past few days when external factors caused precious metals prices to spike. Thus it is interesting to look back at some of the drivers that have, or have not, had much of an impact over 2019. Why should people invest in a different asset class when equities had seemed to be moving on what seems to be an inexorable upwards path? We also thus look forward at which drivers may most affect precious metals and equities performances in the year ahead and their likely impacts.