Is Gold the Real Critical Metal?
The gold price hit a new record high in New York on Friday,
reaching US$2,583/oz. I have never before seen such an
extended period of a sensible, strengthening gold market.
This hasn't been exciting but it has been consistently
improving. On other occasions over the last 45 years gold
has had selective spurts when good money has been made
by traders, but these have been following by extended
periods of weakness as the gold bulls slowly retreated to
the sidelines. This time is different.
This gold market is being driven by parties that actually
want the gold as opposed to just wanting to make trading
profits. This is not about manipulating gold for commercial
advantage like we see with so many commodities today.
There is a bigger picture here and China is positioning itself
to increase its financial power. I'm not sure where this leads
us, other than to say that gold is becoming increasingly
essential to any portfolio. Perhaps it is the one real critical
metal. The price not going down anytime soon.