Hi friends. As I’m sure you know, the British voted to exit the European Union (EU) last Thursday evening. Go here to read all about the event (and more). The Dow Jones Index promptly found itself down almost 1000 points at one point on Monday of this week from last Thursday’s close. Yet, here, one week later on Thursday evening as I write, the DJI has almost fully recovered over the last three days of trading. Wow, talk about volatility!!!

The exit of the United Kingdom (frequently referred to as Brexit for British Exit) was a shocker for most stock market prognosticators who believed Britain would vote to remain in the EU. This major surprise followed another shocker earlier this June when the U.S. witnessed a dismal jobs report for the month of May. The forecast was for 162,000 new positions but the number came in at 38,000.  Go here to read more about the poor jobs report.

Following the double whammy impact of the awful May jobs report and the vote “for” Brexit, there’s plenty of chatter now about the Fed possibly doing a 180 from the stance it had just before the May jobs report was released in early June. Prior to that release, it seemed that several interest rate hikes by the Fed were likely on the table for 2016 and the first of those increases was expected for this July by many experts. However, now there is actually talk of the Fed possibly cutting the interest rate before the year is out.  Go here to read more about this.

Could another round of quantitative easing actually be on the horizon? It’s an interesting question, for sure. A weaker dollar favors gold as does growing uncertainty. On the backs of the two surprising events of June, namely a really bad May jobs report and the British choosing to leave the EU, gold has surged.  At one point, on the eve of the Brexit result, I witnessed gold futures being up one hundred dollars an ounce.

Are the advances in precious metals pricing telling us there is more funny money to be created and funneled into our economy? It seems that the Fed is facing a tightrope act in the months and years to come, in my view.

Have a great July 4th weekend, friends!