Metals Minute 69: Gold Price Positive and State of the Union

While a difficult week around the world, it was a positive week again for gold and silver. Gold is up 1.5% to $1,938, silver is up 3.7% to $25.25, platinum is down 2.5% to $1,073, and palladium is up another 8.4% to $2,648, in this week of conflict with Russia.

For the one-year timeline, precious metals were mixed, with gold up 12%, silver down 5.7%, platinum down 11%, and palladium up 11%.

In President Biden's State of the Union Address last night, he announced a desire for increased spending for infrastructure projects, child care, and veterans programs without raising taxes on most Americans. Increased deficit spending tends to be inflationary and suitable for precious metals price increases.

Sanctions against Russia continue to be a double-edged sword, with $29 Billion in Russian bonds headed into default, beginning as early as tomorrow, affecting the foreign holders of these bonds, including American and European investors and retirement funds. A similar default in 1998 led to the collapse of Long Term Capital Management here in the U.S.