The Federal Reserve has stated that stimulus efforts will last for years and they have committed to do “whatever it takes” to keep the economy afloat. The Federal Reserve balance sheet has shot from $4 trillion pre-crisis to $7 trillion today. This is the highest level on record by a wide margin and the fastest it has ever increased. And this is before the 2nd round of stimulus, which is currently being negotiated. While there are plenty of dollar bulls amidst a global dollar shortage, they have been incorrect in their bullish outlook thus far. The dollar index has dropped from a high of 103 on March 20th to just 94, a significant drop in just a few months to the lowest level since September of 2018.
It turns out that when the money printer goes brrrrrr, it is indeed bearish for the dollar and bullish for gold, which is now up 25% year-to-date. This compares to a loss of 0.5% for the S&P 500 and even outpaces the gains of the red-hot NASDAQ, which is up 15% in the same time period. While we advocate holding some physical gold, it has been mining stocks that have generated the best gains in 2020. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) is up 42% year-to-date and many of the junior miners that we hold in the Gold Stock Bull portfolio are up 100%. Miners see their profit margins increase at a faster pace than the gold price, which often results in leveraged gains.
The recent breakout above resistance at $1,800 (red circle in the chart) was very significant for gold and was followed by a quick rally of an additional $100 to $1,900 per ounce. And there is plenty of upside left in this rally in our view, with the price still below the mid-point of the trend channel. If we use the last major bull cycle in gold as a guide, we forecast the price to climb toward $6,000 by the start of 2026. This would represent another 10-year cycle and 6x move from the December 2015 bottom around $1,050.
- Source, Silver Bear Cafe, read more here
