The narrative that the economy continues to improve is a myth, if not intentional mendacious propaganda. The economy can’t possibly improve with the average household living from paycheck to paycheck while trying to service hopeless levels of debt. In fact, the economy will continue to deteriorate from the perspective of every household below the top 1% in terms of income and wealth. The average price of gasoline has risen close to 50% over the last year (it cost me $48 to fill my tank today vs about $32 a year ago). For most households, the tax cut “windfall” will be largely absorbed by the increasing cost to fill the gas tank, which is going to continue rising. The highly promoted economic boost from the tax cuts will, instead, end up as a transfer payment to oil companies.
The rising cost of gasoline will offset, if not more than offset, the tax benefit for the average household from the Trump tax cut. But rising fuel costs will affect the cost structure of the entire economy. Furthermore, unless businesses can successfully pass-thru higher costs connected to high the er fuel costs, corporate earnings will take an unexpected hit. Rising energy costs will hit Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) especially hard, as 25% of its cost structure is the cost of fulfillment (it’s probably higher because GAAP accounting enables AMZN to bury some of the cost in the inventory account, which then becomes part of “cost of sales”).
Gold is holding up well vs. the dollar. The dollar is at its highest since mid-November and the price of gold is trading 2% higher than it was at in November. Also, don’t overlook that the Fed began its snail-paced interest rate hike cycle at the end of 2015. Gold hit $1030 when the Fed began to tighten monetary policy. I thought gold was supposed to trade inversely with interest rates (note sarcasm). Gold is up nearly 30% since the Fed began nudging rates higher. Despite that it might currently “feel” like the price of gold is going nowhere, beneath the surface gold (and silver) have been staging a very powerful bull market pattern.