The price of a single bar of gold hit a new milestone, topping $1 million for the first time ever. The metal has been white-hot lately, and it’s not hard to understand why. First, the US dollar has been weakening in anticipation of US interest rates declining, and gold (which usually sells by the ounce, not the brick) is priced in dollars. Second, bond yields have been falling since May, reducing the opportunity cost of owning gold, which doesn’t generate any income. Third, gold has been seeing increased safe-haven demand amid rising economic and geopolitical risks. Those factors have helped drive gold’s price up by more than 20% this year.
A few years ago, near-zero interest rates led investors to pour cheap, borrowed money into riskier startups, inflating their valuations. However, as rates rose, venture capital funds struggled to raise new capital, leading to a sharp decline in startup valuations. That caused investors to focus primarily on the buzziest new firms – the ones related to AI – and leave the rest out in the cold. New data showed US startup failures have jumped 58% in the past year, as companies ran out of cash raised during the tech boom of 2021-22. Further exacerbating the trend was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which had been a big provider of venture debt.
China launched a pricing investigation into dairy imports from the European Union (EU), accusing the bloc of exporting cheese and other products for less than they sell for at home (a tactic commonly referred to as “dumping”). The probe – the latest volley in a trade dispute between the two major economies – came a day after the EU said it would increase tariffs on imports of EVs from China. That’d slap them with an additional 9% to 36% tax, on top of the existing 10%.
