Gold ETFs vs. Physical Gold - Dangers Of Exchange Traded Funds
by Olivier Garret on Forbes
Gold ETFs are rising in popularity due to their convenience. They’re easy to trade, there’s no need to store anything, and no one is going to break into your house to steal your GLD shares.
It's official: moments ago TransCanada said the U.S. Department of State issued a presidential permit for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, ending a multi-year controversial, at times acrimonious debate over the future of the pipeline. The pipeline linking Canadian oil sands to U.S. refiners had been blocked by Barack Obama, who said the pipeline would do nothing to reduce fuel prices for U.S. motorists and would contribute emissions linked to global warming.
The latest evidence that rumors of Trumpflation trade's death are not greatly exagerated came overnight from Bank of America which reported that based equity funds saw net outflows of $8.9 billion, the largest in 38 weeks. The most impacted sector was, not surprisingly, banks - the biggest beneficiary of the post-Trump election victory rally, which suffered the biggest outflows in over a year.
The Russian Central Bank surprised markets when it unexpectedly cut interest rates by 25 bps to 9.75% (30 economists expected no change, 8 predicted a 25 bps cut), its first rate cut in four meetings or 7 months, as inflation, which has dropped from a peak of 17% to just 4.6% last month, appears to be under control, while growth is returning to the oil-dominated economy driven by the steady price of oil.
Asian shares and S&P futures rose on optimism that today's rescheduled U.S. vote on health care will pass following Trump's Ultimatum to the Freedom Caucus. European stocks gave up some of Thursday’s gains, falling for the fourth time in five days, and moving further away from a 15-month high reached a week ago while the yen weakened for the first time in nine days before the long awaited U.S. health-care vote that has dominated market sentiment this week. Oil was headed for a third weekly drop this month. Economic data include durable goods orders, Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI.