💡Quote of the Week
“Since the 2000s, the average return on gold in any currency is somewhere between 8% and 10% a year. You haven’t achieved that in the bond market. You have not achieved that in the equity market.” Juerg Kiener, chief investment officer of Swiss Asia Capital
Investment news
📈 Gold at $4,000? The gold price could surge to $4,000 an ounce in 2023 as recession and inflation fears persist. (CNBC)
“Since [the] 2000s, the average return [on] gold in any currency is somewhere between 8% and 10% a year. You haven’t achieved that in the bond market. You have not achieved that in the equity market,” Juerg Kiener, chief investment officer of Swiss Asia Capital, said.
👀 Investors should look at gold in 2023. As tight financial conditions are still weighing on stock markets, corporate debt and gold could be strong investment options in the upcoming year, financial strategists say. (CNBC)
“Where you want to be positioned next year is good quality corporate debt and gold,” Michael Howell, managing director at CrossBorder Capital, said.
💡Will gold be a good investment in 2023? Read our SPOTLIGHT to find out.
🇫🇷 French inflation. France will see high inflation levels in the next few months, particularly regarding food items, with inflation likely to ease in mid-2023, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. (Reuters)
"My priority is for prices to go down from mid-2023 onwards," the minister said.
🇬🇧 U.K. economy was G7 growth laggard. Britain’s economic growth was weaker than expected in the third quarter of this year, putting it at the bottom among the Group of Seven major advanced nations heading into 2023. (Reuters)
U.K.'s economic output fell by 0.3% in quarterly terms compared with a previous estimate of -0.2%, the Office for National Statistics said.
🌪️ Markets in chaos. Famous investor Bill Gross said he expects big trouble ahead should the Fed continue hiking interest rates. (CNBC)
“The economy has been bolstered by tremendous amounts of trillions of dollars in fiscal spending, but ultimately when that is used up, I think we’ve got a mild recession, and if interest rates keep going up, we’ve got more than that,” Gross said.
📸 Image of the week
Opinion
🤔 “Farewell FOMO! Brace for hard landings next year.” Investors are preparing for more bankruptcies in 2023. (Bloomberg Opinion)
“Investors have bid farewell to FOMO and are bracing for even more impact after a year in which profitless tech firms, special purpose acquisition companies, and anything crypto-related went into a tailspin,” Chris Bryant writes.
What else is happening
🇪🇺 EU energy crisis. European Union energy ministers agreed to a “dynamic” cap on natural gas prices after two months of intense talks. (CNBC)
The mechanism will be automatically activated under special conditions: a gas price cap will kick in if prices on the main European gas exchange, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), exceed €180 a megawatt-hour for three consecutive working days.
🧸 It’s not a toy. Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk is searching for a new chief executive of the company. (CNBC)
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” Musk said.
And finally…
🥂 Champagne makers celebrate record sales. Champagne sales are expected to hit a new record this year, despite inflation that could have made consumers shun the expensive bubbly drink. (Reuters)
"We will very likely beat this record again, and 2022 will be the new champagne record in terms of turnover," David Chatillon, chairman of the Union of Champagne Houses (UMC), told Reuters.
Merry Christmas, and see you next week!
