Webcast A Paradigm Shift is Underway: Outlook on Precious Metals

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1. We see them going up in times when potentially U.S. dollar is declining, there’s market volatility.
2. Precious metals are so named because they are rare and thus have a high economic value.
3. Traders buy and sell contracts for a fixed quantity of a commodity, to be delivered at
   some future date.
4. The metal’s soaring value in recent years has seen a jump in the theft of catalytic converters around the world.

For example, because of its electrical properties, silver is a vital component in solar panels. Silver is also a store of value that’s used to make jewelry, silverware, coins, and bars. While gold and silver are money, platinum and palladium historically are not. During a financial panic or currency crisis, the masses may rediscover its monetary utility.

What that may mean is China, after years of being a deflationary force in the global economy, could reverse and become an inflationary contributor. And I think we’re seeing obviously some of the evidence of that and headlines today. On top of that, China has a water issue, which essentially China has about 20 percent of the world’s population, but only seven percent of the world’s freshwater resources, and many of those are compromised.

Whitney George: Slide 7 — Identifying Some of the Current Paradigm Shifts

We’re trying to grow the economy fast or the nominal GDP faster to essentially grow out of the debts and deficits. Turning to the next slide, we have longer-term performance. Here we just show gold versus the S&P 500 and the bonds, et cetera. Over the last two decades, you can see how gold has performed, and in fact, it has outperformed the general market.

Learn the Difference Between Noble and Precious Metals

In 1933, the government banned private ownership of gold bullion and ordered it all to be turned in. Since the U.S. dollar was then still pegged to a fixed gold price, President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to make sure that only the government benefited from his scheme to raise the gold price from $20.67 to $35.00 an ounce. That massive manipulation expanded the money supply, devalued the dollar, and raised price levels. Another factor that lends more intrinsic value to silver is that it’s an industrial metal as well as a precious metal. It has applications in technology and batteries — both growing sectors that will drive demand higher.

Ed Coyne: Slide 32 — Gold Offers Portfolio Protection

Osmium basically is tied with iridium as the element with the highest density. This bluish metal is extremely hard and brittle, with a high melting point. While it’s too heavy and brittle to use in jewelry and gives off an unpleasant odor, the metal is a desirable https://forex-review.net/ addition when making alloys. It also has one of the highest melting points and is the most corrosion-resistant element. It exhibits high corrosion resistance and has a high melting point. Like platinum, this element can absorb an enormous quantity of hydrogen.

The point is, recessions and the responses of sovereign governments can wreak havoc on the value of your stocks as well as your cash. If you’re running a business and want to weather the storm in the long term, gold has a track record of holding its value over time and can provide your business with liquidity when it needs it the most. Silver is a popular precious metal for jewelry, but its value extends well beyond beauty.

Ed Coyne: Slide 34 — Consider Adding Precious Metals to Your Portfolio

These two have been good predictors of growth topping and rolling over in the past. Whitney, hopefully, we’re going to have some more questions come up as well at the end of this webcast. We’re going to turn to Maria now to talk about her outlook on precious metals but please stick around because I know there are some listeners that have specific questions that they love to hear your response to. With that, I’d like to bring Maria Smirnova back on the line to talk a bit about her outlook on precious metals and what we’re seeing today from an opportunity standpoint. Maria, thank you for being patient and thank you for being part of the call today.

Of course, I would love to talk about how silver benefits from the green economy and movement to electric vehicles, a greener energy, et cetera. Like I said, we are seeing increasing demand and investment demand in silver. Silver is also benefiting from the move to green energy, the move to decarbonization. And then the last minor point that I’d like to be a paradigm shift is the potential for political moderation. For the last decade or so everywhere in the world, we’ve seen politics polarized.

Is the Platinum Price Always Lower Than Gold and Palladium Prices?

This combination of rarity and functionality might make platinum the most precious of the precious metals. Most precious metals are traded primarily for their use as a universally recognized store of value, but some are traded for their industrial value. These mainly include the Platinum group metals, mostly Platinum itself but also Palladium and Rhodium, among others. Not all noble metals are precious, but all precious metals are noble, including Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium and Rhodium. Though some of these do not see as much trading as others, they are still considered precious and traded for their intrinsic metal value.

Silver Spot Price (XAG/CAD)

That makes silver more promising to hold during hard times than a straight-up industrial metal. In recent years gold has traded between $1,200 and $1,900 per ounce. That’s a huge move up in nominal terms over the past century. Yet in real terms gold prices today aren’t much different from what they were when they were last quoted at $20 an ounce. Lobo Tiggre, founder and editor of IndependentSpeculator.com, agrees with this long-term outlook. «The industrial side of silver is very bullish for silver over years to come, even if the safe-haven demand for gold goes away,» he said in an interview with INN in January 2023.

In 2008, gold was one of the only alternative investment assets to show a gain for the year. For 2023, Hecla reported silver production of 14.3 million ounces, which was almost flat on a year-on-year basis. However, it’s important to note that the flat production was on account of Lucky Friday mine operations being suspended.

Prices for metals can drop due to technical imbalances (more sellers than buyers), changes in supply and demand, geopolitical issues, and other related factors. That said, during times of economic uncertainty, sellers benefit, as prices tend to shoot up. According to the report, Asia Pacific was the largest market for precious metals. In addition, the rapid growth of consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, refinery, and petrochemical industries in the area is driving up demand for precious metals for a variety of applications. Investors often view precious metals, such as gold, silver, and platinum as a form of hard asset, allowing them to store wealth for future generations and easily transport the asset. These metals serve as a safe haven asset, meaning that when the prices of other asset classes decrease, investors flock to gold, cash, and treasuries.

If we look at valuations and if you look at another metric, the enterprise value to EBITDA, mining stocks currently are trading at about half or less of the S&P 500. What we’re seeing in the physical market, in the supply-demand side of things, silver has been in a supply-demand deficit since 2019. We’re expecting these deficits to continue going forward, and there’s a number of factors with that. You can see that when the real interest rate line, and that’s the blue line declining, gold did really well. In recent times as well, from about 2018, 2019, we can see that as well. Certainly, the brewing industry, we’ve been seeing all of the disruptions and distribution, finding truckdrivers, forklift operators, and now material shortages.

A sharp rise in precious metals prices suggests not all is well in the financial world. Welcome to the home of the best precious metals charts available on the Internet. You can access live and historical information about gold and silver prices, precious metals charts, and the market factors that drive them.