Pablo Pardo (Washington) | The United States, like practically all countries in the world, is in a situation of uncertainty. Jobs are being created, but less than expected in a recovery that will lead this year and next to the highest GDP growth in three and a half decades. And jobs are being created despite the fact that companies say they are unable to find workers. Because, despite the withdrawal...

Mobeen Tahir, Associate Director, Research, WisdomTree | On Tuesday, 11 August, gold fell by over 5% and silver retreated nearly 15% prompting investors to wonder if there had been a material shift in market sentiment. Are defensive hedges no longer required? How important are gold and silver as risk sentiment improves? A glance towards the wider market, and indeed economic fundaments, can help answer these questions.

E-toro | Investing patterns have differed dramatically across age groups during the crisis, according to JP Morgan, with older investors backing gold while young ones turn to Bitcoin. Millennials are also targeting stocks while their parents dump equities and turn to bonds.

BofA Global Research | Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the global gold sector "heated" up in Q2'20 with twelve transactions announced (highest quarterly total since Q4'12) with a total transaction value of $2.86 billion, nearly double that in Q1'20. Historically global gold sector M&A activity heats up during times of buoyant gold prices. The "elephant-in-the-room" was SSR Mining's friendly $1.71 billion all share merger with Alacer Gold on May 11 2020. The remaining eleven transactions ranged in size from $27mn to $238mn.

Carsten Menke, Head Next Generation Research, Julius Baer | The gold rally continues. Prices pushed higher yesterday, approaching USD 1,800 per ounce for the first time since 2011. Looking back, there were just 26 days in gold’s history on which it traded above that level, almost all of them occurring in August and September 2011, i.e. during the eurozone debt crisis. Holdings of physically backed gold products, our preferred gauge of safe-haven demand, recorded 95 tonnes of inflows in June, taking the year-to-date total to more than 710 tonnes. These are the biggest inflows ever. 

Degussa | Unfortunately, those blaming capitalism are barking up the wrong tree. For all their critique of inflationary money, economic hardship and rising inequality are the direct results of governments’ successful war against capitalism, which has been replaced by a system of interventions; the free market system was replaced by a system of decrees and prohibitions, all of which are incompatible with capitalism in the true sense. Against this backdrop, the question arises: How come that people put all the blame on capitalism rather than interventionism-socialism?