When gold goes down or stays flat, nobody in the mainstream press wants to talk about it. It’s only when the gold price breaks out, especially if it’s through a round number like $2,000, that the pundits suddenly take an interest in the yellow metal.

The Federal Reserve is done hiking interest rates and will definitely flip to rate cuts in next year’s first half – or at least, that’s what the market has assumed and priced into large-cap stocks. Now, the burden falls upon the stock buyers to justify their optimism. It’s a heavy burden, given the actual facts and circumstances.

As the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary continue to deny that a recession ever happened, many retail investors assume that the worst is behind them and 2024 will be an easy year of stock market gains. That assumption could cost unwary stock traders a whole lot of money over the next 12 months.

Given the rip-roaring S&P 500 rally over the past several weeks, it appears that the market has already declared “mission accomplished” and loaded up on stocks for the holidays. Their holiday spirits might get crushed soon, however, as the rally is as vulnerable as it’s been all year.

Like an overeager neighbor who puts up his front-lawn Christmas lights in September, the market is too early and too eager in celebrating an apparent victory over inflation. In contrast, prudent investors should look at what the Federal Reserve is actually saying and doing instead of just assuming that Santa’s coming early this year.

If 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s predictions had been true, our homes should have been powered by wind farms and our roadways ought to have been filled with electric vehicles by now. As it turns out, phasing out fossil fuels wasn’t so easy.

Many of my readers are in celebration mode now that the gold price has broken above the crucial $2,000 resistance level. This could easily be the start of a much bigger rally since other commodities have had their breakout moments and it’s finally gold’s turn to shine.

With only a couple of months left in 2023, it’s time for the experts to issue their predictions for the coming year. Perhaps, then, it should be alarming but not too surprising that DoubleLine Capital founder Jeffrey Gundlach is bracing for a bumpy ride in 2024’s...

From a technical and psychological standpoint, $2,000 is a make-or-break level for the gold price right now. That’s how it seems to short-term traders, at least, but the case for owning gold has never been about short-term concerns.