Hi all,

just looking at what's happening trade wise across the world, the past six months.  The current trade issues

between America and China, as well as the political disarray in the European Union countries, of which Brexit is part.

I've been guessing that many investors around the world would be turning to - gold as a safe investment.  Below is an article

in The West Australian - pointing to that -as we edge into 2019:  

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Goldglitters amid the global gloom

Gareth Costa    The West Australian

Thursday,27 December 2018

Gold Expected to Rise in 2019, OANDA's Innes Says

 

Stephen Innes,head of Trading at OANDA Asia-Pacific, talks about gold and Malaysian stocks.

Gold miners are set to be among the few winners thismonth, with the competition for the haven asset yesterday driving theAustralian dollar price to a 30-month high of $1809 an ounce.

The rally in the US dollar gold price to a six-month highof $US1376 an ounce and a fall in the Australian dollar to near two-year lowsof US70.20¢ has left the spot Aussie dollar price just 3.4 per cent off itsrecord high of $1854/oz.

“Overall the latest move on gold should be a starkreminder to investors that gold in any form should be an essential part of anylong-term investment strategy, as again the yellow metal has proved its weight whenmarkets turn turbulent,” Oanda Corp head of Asia Pacific trading Stephen Innessaid.

Bloomberg reported gold exchange-traded fund holdings hadsoared 100 tonnes to 2180t since global sharemarkets began falling in October.

While investors were right to get concerned about aslowdown in economic growth, Mr Innes said “making things worse is the turmoilin Washington be it a government shutdown over a border wall, more keyWhitehouse staff vacancies or Trump constantly berating the Fed”.

“Investors are losing faith because Trump is turning intothe type of president many always feared: unpredictable, unsettled andunrestrained,” he said.

But instead of the US dollar weakening it has alsoattracted haven demand and rallied over the past two months against the Aussiedollar. That spurt was fuelled by concerns over China’s growth momentum anddecelerating global growth hitting commodity prices.

“Markets have pretty much made up their minds on how jumpythey want to be — very,” Standard Chartered Bank head of global G-10 currencyresearch Steve Englander told Bloomberg. “The question is what is the primarydriver of the jumpiness — economic concerns, Fed policy, Trump-Fed conflict,slowing of global growth. Nothing is particularly encouraging right now.”

National Australia Bank global head of currency strategyRay Attrill said a US-China trade deal in the March-quarter would go a long wayto resurrecting confidence in improved prospects for the global economy in2019.

“On its own it could deliver the sort of boost to USstocks the President doubtless now craves,” he said.

Given the above, let's hope  GTE  hits a bit of luck - EARLY in 2019 with regards to Yandal  

Season Greetings

Bluequartz