United States

Submitted by Axel Merk via Merk Investments,

Is gold, often scoffed at as being an unproductive asset, more productive than cash? If so, what does it mean for asset allocation?

In what will be a closely watched and even more closely scrutinized speech, today at noon Donald J. Trump will hold a speech on foreign policy at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.  In the speech Trump is poised to demonstrate just how "presidential" he can be, because as Reuters writes, "he is expected to set aside his bad-boy antics and, with the help of a teleprompter to keep him on message, outline what his foreign policies would be if he is elected U.S. president." 

US troops are in Syria and the Pentagon has sent 250 more despite repeated promises to the contrary. President Obama confirmed plans to dramatically increase the American troop presence in Syria by deploying the additional 250 personnel, saying that the troops would help drive out ISIS.

For the past two weeks, Donald Trump has been on a tear, raging at how rigged the US presidential nominating system is. This is not a surprise to our readers: just two weeks ago we posted an article "The Year Americans Found Out Their Elections Are Rigged" which promptly went viral. And, judging by the Reuters/Ipsos poll, more than half of America agrees with Trump that the system U.S. political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is "rigged" while more than two-thirds want to see the process changed.

For those who thought that the world's biggest company losing over $40 billion in market cap in an instant on disappointing Apple earnings, would have been sufficient to put a dent in US equity futures, we have some disappointing news: with just over 7 hours until the FOMC reveals its April statement, futures are practically unchanged, even though the Nasdaq appears set for an early bruising in the aftermath of what is becoming a disturbing quarter for tech companies. "It’s pretty disappointing,” Angus Nicholson, an analyst at IG Ltd., told Bloomberg.