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When investors in Germany buy gold, they tend to do so with the intention of protecting their wealth, while also keeping one eye on making good long-term returns. That was a finding from our 2019 survey of over 2,000 German retail investors.
Recent indications suggest that the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in China appears to be virtually contained. Even though there are still new imported infection cases, China’s reported local infections have remained near zero for a significant period.
In this webinar, our Chief Market Strategist, John Reade and Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors, Michael Arone, discuss the global impact of COVID-19 and whether gold can help manage this unprecedented market volatility.
Topics include:
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) announced an emergency 50bp rate cut yesterday, bringing the Fed funds rate down to a 1-1.25% range, in response to ongoing concerns about the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak to the global economy. Treasury bond rates followed suit, with the 10-year note hovering 1% at the time of writing – an all-time historical low
The stock market embraced the weakest one-week performance since the financial crisis last week on the back of growing concerns of the continued spread of the coronavirus across the globe. Despite the risk off-moves, gold was lower by more than 3% last week, which is historically unusual during these types of movements. There are a few potential reasons for the weakness.
At the end of January, the new head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, announced the launch of a year-long strategic review of the bank’s monetary policy strategy. Stemming from this, there has been much discussion recently about the ECB’s existing “below but close to 2%” inflation target, and whether this needs to be made more specific, both in aim and measurement.
