Alarm Bells Ring and Gold Rises In October As Stocks and Property Fall Globally – Video Update

In our latest video update, we consider the performance of markets in a volatile October. Stock markets globally fell sharply while gold acted as a hedge in all currencies, rising 1.7% in dollars, 4.4% in euro terms and 4.2% in sterling terms.

Stocks Fall Sharply in October
The S&P 500 is just short of a 10% decline from its record September high and remains on pace for the worst month since 2009. It has fallen from a record high of 2930 to 2640. In October alone, the S&P is down 7.3%.

Asian shares as represented by the MSCI Asia Pacific Index have entered a bear market. Many Asian stock indices, including China, fell into a bear market last week amid the global sell-off and China is down a large 30%. Japan and Australia are down nearly 15% from recent peaks

October Market Performance (Finviz.com)

From their 52-week highs, the big tech stocks, the FANGs are down sharply: FB -33.9% AMZN -23.8% NFLX -32.8% GOOGL -18.0% and the FANG index is now in bear market territory.

Is this a correction or the start of a bear market or crash? We are not betting people at GoldCore but if we had to bet, our money is on one of the latter two – a bear market or a crash in the coming months.

Property Falls Continue
House prices in over valued markets continue to fall with Australia being at the vanguard in this regard. House prices are ‘falling by over $1,000 a week’ in Sydney and Melbourne according to Deloitte.

In the UK, the housing market, particularly in London, continues to slow down. UK house asking prices have been slashed and asking prices of almost two-in-five properties for sale in Britain has been reduced by an average of more than £26,000.

In London, 39.5 per cent of property listings have been reduced in price. Kensington and Chelsea registered the biggest drop in cash terms with an average discount of £127,394.

In Ireland, the Dublin housing boom looks vulnerable and weakness has crept into the higher end of the prime Dublin housing market as Brexit jitters deepen.

Conclusion
Many political, economic and financial risks have been ‘bubbling’ away under the surface and were being ignored as risk assets, especially U.S. stocks, kept marching higher.

As financial markets fell in October, these risks came to the fore and became harder for the media to ignore.

Yet still very few have “joined the dots” and considered how the confluence of these many risks will likely create another global financial crisis…

News and Commentary