Gold pushes higher second straight day on Ukraine tensions, Fed concerns
Yellow metal hits highest level since May, once again knocking on $1900s door

(USAGOLD – 2/17/2022) – Gold pushed higher for the second straight day on reports of shell fire being exchanged on the Ukraine border and lingering concern about a rapidly rising inflation rate and the dangers imposed by signaled Fed policies intended to deal with it. It is up another $19 at $1890, its highest price since May when it last challenged the $1900 mark. Silver is up 19¢ at $23.84.

Gold price
(One year)

Chart courtesy of TradingView.com

We recall that early in the inflation cycle, it was industry purchasing managers and CEOs who provided early warning of inflation’s sudden arrival. With that in mind, we take special note of Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink’s warning yesterday that in his 24-years in the beer business, he has never seen anything like the inflation the company is experiencing now. “Across the board,” he says, “we are faced with crazy increases.” (Financial Times, 2/16/2022)

Jeff Gundlach, the highly respected hedge fund manager, is concerned about the Fed’s response to hot inflation. “One thing we can all agree on is inflation just continues to surprise on the upside,” he recently told CNBC. “The Fed is obviously behind the curve. … It’s going to have to raise rates more than the market still thinks. My suspicion is they are going to keep raising rates until something breaks, which always happens.”