Bumble

This chart shows the difference between what happens when the USA has a unified government, i.e. President, House and Senate all controlled by the same party, versus a divided government. When unified, the government is able to get its spending plans approved, debt increases more and interest rates rise. When the government is divided, spending is curtailed because it is more difficult to get spending approved.

HSBC has recently announced that they will sell gold backed tokens on a crypto ledger. At present, this is only available to customers in Hong Kong. The tokens do not carry the right to take delivery of physical gold. This may be somewhat cynical on my part, but a possible interpretation is that banks are now saying we would rather you didn't buy gold, but if you must, buy it in a form that we control and where it can sit on our balance sheet.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/20/detectorist-strikes-gold-largest-nugget-found-england/ Not exactly on the scale of the ones Australians turn up, but still.

Historically, the Fed do not like to change interest rates within 2 to 3 months of an election, because it makes them look partisan. So, if rates are going to be cut, the summer is the last opportunity. Not many people are talking about GBP, but by the end of the year there will be a Labour government in the UK, and this is not Tony Blair's Labour. Almost anything this government wants to do will send GBP plunging downwards. I honestly would not be surprised to see GBP below parity with USD within 3 years. Now is the time to get your savings out of GBP and into something else. Even USD would be a much better choice. CHF might be even better. Gold should be good. US blue chip stocks should be OK.

The recent run-up in gold has pushed it above the upper Bollinger band for three days running now, which is unusual. Also the RSI is technically showing overbought. I wouldn't be surprised to see a short term correction now, like we had in early December. I remain bullish on the year and expect to see further all-time highs.

Supercore inflation leaves out food, fuel and housing costs.

Asset performance. Numbers in parentheses are negative.

Uranium did well in 2023 and may well continue to do so. I own some Yellowcake (YCA.L) and some of the Sprott Uranium miners fund (URNP.L).