Key Takeaways Sound money is a form of currency whose supply cannot be expanded by government decree, so it preserves purchasing power over time instead of steadily losing it. The idea guided 19th-century monetary policy and typically meant a metallic standard: coins defined by weight and paper money redeemable on demand in that metal. Since … Read more

The Federal Reserve published the minutes from its July 28–29 meeting on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. ET. The record shows the committee voted 9–3 to hold the federal funds rate at 3.50%–3.75%. But the minutes also included a new detail that markets had not previously seen in the Fed’s official materials: Chair Kevin Warsh proposed … Read more

Key Takeaways An inverted yield curve occurs when short-term Treasury yields exceed long-term Treasury yields — the opposite of the typical upward-sloping curve. The yield curve has preceded every U.S. recession since 1955, making it among the most reliable single recession predictors economists track, with only a small number of disputed exceptions. An inverted curve … Read more

Two of gold’s traditional headwinds were very active today: an AI-driven equity selloff and a surge in Treasury yields to near two-decade highs. Yet gold and silver moved higher despite those pressures. Several clear developments help explain this apparent disconnect: the actual intraday price action, a policy intervention by the U.S. Treasury in the long-end … Read more

Data note: Market prices and intraday figures in this article reflect conditions as of approximately 9:30 AM ET on August 20, 2026. Prices may have changed. Last verified: August 20, 2026. Gold is trading around $4,473 today, down roughly 1.1% from this morning’s open. Silver is near $66.76, off about 0.4%. Both metals eased after … Read more

Key Takeaways Silver trades near $63.81 an ounce, roughly 47.5% below its January 29, 2026 record of $121.62. Speculative positioning has largely unwound: net long contracts equal about 20.5% of open interest, near the 20th percentile of the past 60 weekly reports. Gross short positions increased roughly 40% since mid-July, which creates a potential buying … Read more

Gold is trading at $4,409 today and silver sits near $65.70. The relationship between Federal Reserve rate expectations and precious metals is shifting rapidly. Five distinct developments arrived this Monday morning, each from a different corner of the market, and all point in the same direction: lower rate-hike odds are supporting higher precious metals prices. … Read more

As of Thursday, August 20, 2026, gold was trading around $4,517.18 and silver near $68.18, according to price charts. Gold traded lower on the session after dipping to about $4,450.69 earlier in the day, while silver gained roughly 1.8%. Both metals reacted to the same batch of economic releases published at 8:30 a.m. ET, but … Read more

Key Takeaways: The July 29 FOMC vote was 9–3. Cleveland’s Beth Hammack, Minneapolis’s Neel Kashkari, and Dallas’s Lorie Logan each preferred a rate increase — the strongest hawkish dissent since September 2016. The minutes from that meeting are released tomorrow, August 19 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Pay attention to how explicitly the three dissenters laid … Read more

Key Takeaways Major gold ETFs such as GLD carry an annual expense ratio (for example, 0.40%). Retail shareholders cannot directly redeem ETF shares for physical metal; only Authorized Participants can, and only in large creation/redemption blocks. Standard U.S. homeowners insurance using the ISO HO-3 form typically limits coverage for cash, coins, and bullion to a … Read more