September 21, 2026
Dear Fellow Investor,
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| Well, they did it.
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| Kevin Warsh and his FOMC hiked rates a quarter-point last week, and perhaps the only part of the move that raised some eyebrows was the 12-0 vote tally.
So it seems that the Fed is united behind their commitment to fight inflation, and this rate hike served to win some credibility.
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| But it won’t win the war, and thus it won’t affect the most immediate drivers of inflation.
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| Gold dropped in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, but it soared the very next day. That was a surprise to some, but not to those who have been through this before.
For example, in December 2015, the market expected the Fed to deliver its first rate hike since the Great Financial Crisis at its upcoming meeting.
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| Golden Opportunities continues below...
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| Sponsor:
The Tomorrow Investor
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| The Pentagon Has 120 Days to Solve This Critical Mineral Problem
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| China controls roughly 80% of the world's tungsten supply.
That’s becoming a major problem for Washington.
On January 1, new Pentagon sourcing restrictions are set to tighten the rules around Chinese tungsten entering U.S. defense supply chains.
And America hasn't produced tungsten domestically since 2015.
Yet tungsten is critical to many of the systems the Pentagon depends on — from missiles and warheads to drones, military aircraft, rockets and spacecraft.
That could put a little-known Nasdaq company in the spotlight.
Skyline Builders Group (NASDAQ: KAZR) is combining with the company advancing Severniy Katpar, one of the world's largest undeveloped tungsten resources.
If developed as planned, the project could produce roughly 15% of current global tungsten supply.
And Washington is already paying attention.
Two U.S. government agencies have expressed interest in providing up to $1.6 billion in indicative financing support to help advance the project.
With tungsten prices up as much as 900% and a major Pentagon deadline approaching, KAZR could be one critical-mineral stock to watch.
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| Get the Full KAZR Story →
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| In Gold Newsletter back then, I made a pretty bold call that this first rate hike would mark the bottom for the gold price, as the expected event that was the basis for so many gold short trades would become a fait accompli, and the traders would move on.
At that point in time, Western traders were making the gold price, and few were taking it.
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| As I’d predicted, gold soared after that initial Fed hike, and many of our junior mining recommendations jumped 4x-5x over the next six months.
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| Today we find a similar, but not identical, situation. Western traders have also leaned on gold in recent weeks in anticipation of a Fed rate hike, but with a lesser effect than in the previous example. That’s because while the West is again making the gold price, others are now gleefully taking it.
So the short gold trade is over after the Fed’s move last week...and the powerful underlying demand for the metal is taking control once again.
So buckle up…but also be prepared for more volatility.
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| The West Is In
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| We were spoiled by central bank buying for the first 18 months or so of this bull market. They’re relentless demand kept the gold price rising with hardly a break.
Then, about a year ago, the Western traders finally decided to come in, in force.
The resulting volatility shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise.
At last year’s New Orleans Investment Conference, Jim Iuorio warned our audience that the ride was about to get much rougher:
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| “There’s going to be huge volatility in this trade.”
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| In fact, Jim said gold could suffer a much deeper decline and still remain within the context of a bull market. And he made an important point that investors tend to forget when the screens turn red:
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| “The fundamental case could be getting stronger and stronger and gathering steam, but that doesn’t mean the market continues to move up.”
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| Markets, he reminded us, are also driven by positioning, sentiment and the simple tendency of investors to crowd into — and then rush out of — a trade.
Rich Checkan made essentially the same point after gold suffered a 10% correction shortly before last year’s Conference.
He came into the office the next morning and asked his staff:
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| “What fundamentally changed?”
The answer?
“Absolutely nothing.”
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| Rich went through the usual signals that historically accompany the end of major gold bull markets — including much higher interest rates, a much stronger dollar and deteriorating underlying conditions — and concluded:
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| “None of these indicators are suggesting that this is the end of the bull market.”
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| I made a similar point in my own presentation.
After one of gold’s sharpest corrections of the cycle, I told attendees that the arrival of more Western speculative money meant we should expect more volatility going forward:
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| “It’s not going to be as easy as it was over the last 18 months.”
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| And, importantly:
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| “The factors behind this bull market remain firmly in place.”
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| That’s the question investors have to wrestle with after last week’s Fed decision.
Does this rate hike alter the forces that created this metals bull market in the first place?
That’s the debate we’ll be having in New Orleans.
And in just 37 days, we’ll bring many of the smartest minds in metals, markets and macroeconomics back together to figure out what comes next.
I’ll close with this now-familiar warning:
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| Registrations for New Orleans ’26 are flowing in at a rate we haven’t seen in decades. Our exhibit hall is already sold out, and our room block in our convenient host hotel is also set to sell out soon.
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| So again, I urge you to click on the link below to learn more, and to lock in your spot in New Orleans this year. You’ll not only guarantee you’ll be able to attend, but you’ll save hundreds of dollars in registration fees if you can act now.
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| All the best,
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| Brien Lundin
Publisher, Gold Newsletter
CEO, the New Orleans Investment Conference
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| CLICK HERE
To Learn More
And Reserve Your Place At
New Orleans ’26
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| CLICK HERE to watch interviews by Brien Lundin and Kai Hoffmann with many of today's most exciting junior mining companies on the
Gold Newsletter Youtube channel.
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