Metals Minute 136: Metals Buoyed by Trouble

Platinum wins the prize over the last week, up 1.4% to $876. Silver follows, flat at $18.43. Gold is next, down a fraction to $1,714, followed by palladium, down 3.4% per week to $2,046.

From a year ago today, gold is the best performer, down 4.5%, silver is down 19%, platinum is off 13%, and palladium is down 14%.

YTD, we have palladium up 12%, gold down 4.7%, platinum off 9%, and silver down 19%. This year, a composite of the metals continues to outperform stocks and bonds.

The question we have today is, why are the metals exhibiting relative strength in this environment when nearly every asset category is down for the year? Besides all the inherent reasons we could discuss or the historical precedents we could look at, some other factors are worthy of our consideration.

With businesses large and small closing across Europe, and layoffs widening here in the United States, the question quickly becomes, “what else is there to invest in?”. With rising interest rates and falling markets, conditions are ripe for the metals (esp gold, silver, platinum) to power through as they have in stagflations past.