Gold prices have spent a good chunk of 2024 setting a string of new all-time highs. There are a few reasons why this could be happening, but I think three of them stand out above all others. To be clear, investing in gold miner stocks is not the same thing as investing in gold. Gold miners are companies with revenues and cash flows and profits and losses. That could make gold miner stocks kind of a leveraged play on gold.

Last week's rate hike now presents a real problem for the BoJ and raises potentially more questions than answers. Has anything really changed or is this just a “pivot” in name only? The markets seem to think it’s the latter. This leaves me with two big questions - 1) why did the Bank of Japan come in so gentle with its first policy change and 2) why did the Fed follow it up with a surprisingly dovish stance of its own?

I probably don’t need to tell you that much of the U.S. equity market’s return since the beginning of 2023 have been driven by just a handful of stocks. If you’re banking on these types of returns continuing, you should probably adjust your expectations now. In fact, it’s probably a good time to reassess your portfolio allocation altogether.