15th February 2017

 Gold fell over the course of Tuesday trading, buffeted by a stronger dollar, soaring US equity prices and rather hawkish testimony coming out of Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony. However, the precious metal recovered ground late in the day to finish slightly higher, underlining our general belief that gold will be hard-pressed to sell off significantly given the variety of political and economic uncertainties that lie ahead. With all that is going on in Washington these days (much of it focused on unproductive distractions), geopolitical considerations are playing a much larger role in the resulting vacuum and giving gold an element of support. Just over the past week, both Iran and North Korea launched missiles (pretty much with impunity), while on Tuesday, we learned that the Russians may have violated an arms treaty by deploying a new cruise missile. European political challenges are equally of concern, with elections slated for four countries this year and not too many people having much confidence in the existing polls that show establishment candidates in the lead.