Top Stories This Week: Retail Sales Data Hits Gold, Uranium’s Climb Continues

What a week it’s been for gold. After starting the five day period near the US$1,800 per ounce mark, the yellow metal dropped steeply on Thursday (September 16).

It was hovering just above US$1,750 at the time of this writing on Friday (September 17) afternoon.

Market watchers have blamed the decline on better-than-expected US retail sales data, which shows an increase of 0.7 percent in August compared to an anticipated fall of 0.8 percent.

The two day Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week is another potential catalyst for gold. I heard this week from Gareth Soloway of InTheMoneyStocks.com, who said he expects the central bank’s tone to be “a little bit more hawkish than the market expects.”

“I’m in the camp that (the US Federal Reserve is) actually going to be a little bit more hawkish than the market expects” — Gareth Soloway, InTheMoneyStocks.com

Gareth still has an end-of-year price target of US$2,100 for gold, although he noted that it’s possible it could be pushed out into the first quarter of next year.

With gold in mind, we asked our Twitter followers this week if they think it will go up, down or stay neutral after next week’s Fed meeting. By the time the poll closed, all three options had fairly even response levels, although “up” was in the lead with around 40 percent of the vote.

We’ll be asking another question on Twitter next week, so make sure to follow us @INN_Resource or follow me @Charlotte_McL to share your thoughts.

The story is different for uranium, which continues to push higher. Prices for the commodity, which some refer to as “the other yellow metal,” climbed further this week, with futures nearing US$50 per pound.

This price move is significant for uranium, which hasn’t been at the current level for about a decade. Like we discussed last week, the rise has largely been attributed to buying from the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX:U.UN), although market watchers have also been quick to point out that uranium’s fundamentals have been improving for quite some time.

The Sprott trust is designed to provide exposure to physical uranium, and has been snapping up material since launching over the summer. Of note this week, it announced the launch of an updated at-the-market equity program and said it will issue up to an additional US$1 billion worth of trust units.

Finally, in the tech space, INN’s Bryan Mc Govern explored this year’s NFT craze. Although the excitement has calmed down since the initial hype seen earlier this year, NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are still attracting attention from tech-savvy investors looking for new options.

Put very simply, an NFT is a unit of data that is stored on the blockchain and used to certify that a digital or physical asset is unique. NFTs can be used to represent a wide range of items, but so far digital art NFTs, like this piece from the artist Beeple, have been among the most common.

So should you invest? Maybe. But before you jump in, it’s important to remember that the NFT space can be unpredictable. Unexpected objects can increase in value quickly, meaning you’ll need to keep your wits about you if you want to make a profit.

“Do we think that NFTs are here to stay, and they’re going to be a valid medium for value exchange? Absolutely. I think they’re just going to get a little bit more business as usual, a little bit more mundane, a little bit more boring, but a lot more essential” — Abhishek Sinha, EY

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.