Gold is trading like a crypto coin this week.
It's up another $22 today to $2137, which breaks the Asian spike high from early December. It's the third straight day of gains in a clear breakout above the $2000/$2100 level that's held up gold several times since 2000.
In the past week, the market has traded as if the US economy had taken a downturn, or as if non-farm payrolls had been weak. Instead, there have been a handful of soft second-tier data but nothing that would give anyone some real conviction in a slowdown and rate cuts.
But it's not just gold that's showing a flight to safety. Treasury yields are lower today, including a 6.6 bps dip in Treasury yields to 4.15% well off the recent 4.35% recent high.
One thing the market surely noticed was a 7.2% increase in Chinese defense spending this year, followed by similar jumps in the past several years. The reference of a 'peaceful reunification' with Taiwan was also dropped.
