Gold is wrapping up a day for the history books as it climbed $57 and finished at the highs of the day at $2989. That’s a record high and just a shade under $3000, a number that’s going to be in focus in Asia-Pacific trade.

The only thing I can see stopping gold right now is a reversal of tariff tensions and signs from Congress that it won’t tolerate huge deficits.

The seeds of today’s rally started in Asia as it crept higher even as the rest of the market. I wrote:

Precious metals remain an attractive place to ride out a chaotic trade
war but would be vulnerable if the US ever lays out a coherent,
consistent policy. At the moment, I don’t see much risk of that.

On the Congressional side, US leaders continue to talk about making corporate tax cuts permanent and removing taxes on tips and social security. It’s tough to accomplish any of that without ballooning the deficit.

At the same time, China appears to be building its gold reserves and I don’t think Russia is about to pivot back to US dollar holdings any time soon, despite progress on peace.