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Gold has remained disappointedly range-bound through equity turmoil and rising geopolitical tensions. A flirt above $1360/oz last week was cut short by hawkish Fed minutes but more positive inflation prints could yet kick-start the returns needed to entice meaningful inflows . . . .

Gold is famously correlated inversely to the dollar and since the dollar has been weak of late the price is relatively strong, at just over US$1,340 per ounce . . . .

Donald Trump’s trade policies are breathing new life into precious metals. Measures of 60-day historical volatility for gold and palladium futures climbed to the highest in about a year. Volatility in silver also increased . . . .

Physical gold demand in most Asian hubs was muted this week, weighed down by stronger prices, despite a slight pick-up in buying in India ahead of the wedding season and a key festival . . . .

Republican Congressman from West Virginia Alex Mooney has proposed a bill “to define the dollar as a fixed weight of gold.” The problem is that the US may not have enough physical gold to back the greenback, an expert tells RT . . . .

The U.S. trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February as both exports and imports rose to record highs, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply . . . .

Gold demand saw a revival in the financial year 2017-18, over the preceding fiscal, 2016-17, according to analysts. In fact, the import of the yellow metal stood at 74 metric tonnes (MT) in FY2017-18, increasing from 62 MT in FY2016-17, an increase of 19% year-on-year . . . .

The country is shrinking its tax base just as interest expenses surge and social programs get harder to cut . . . .

In a January post, I showed how the price of gold rallied in the months following the 2015 and 2016 December interest rate hikes – as much as 29 percent in the former cycle, 17.8 percent in the latter. Gold ended 2017 up double digits, despite pressure from skyrocketing stocks and massive cryptocurrency speculation . . . .

The silver futures Commitment of Traders (COT) report released last Friday was extremely positive and has most silver analysts calling for higher silver prices in the near term . . . .