Bloomberg: Gold has performed poorly since Trump's election, and some funds may turn to the crypto market

Trump's victory immediately boosted the stock and bitcoin markets, while gold took longer to turn around. In the two days after Trump's victory, gold's performance was the worst in at least 13 U.S. presidential election windows, according to Deutsche Bank. Gold prices have fallen nearly 7% since Election Day, even as several other asset classes have received a boost after the campaign. "People really get interested in gold when everything else doesn't work," said Rob Haworth, senior director of investment strategy at Bank of America. "Equities are doing well; you're even seeing solid returns in low-quality corporate credit. So you're less likely to look for other sources of portfolio growth." The dollar's rebound since Trump's reelection has also been a negative for gold. At the same time, the U.S. economy appears to be in pretty good shape, with inflation easing and the Federal Reserve in no rush to continue lowering interest rates. John Hancock, co-chief investment strategist at the investment management firm, said that given the current strength in other parts of the U.S. economy, "gold would be a contrarian investment choice, and the feeling right now is that there is little risk, both fundamentally and geopolitically. It's not easy to go against the trend in this environment." "We have more attractive places to invest besides gold," said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, noting that investment opportunities exist in financials and other riskier assets. Since Election Day, cryptocurrencies have also surged on expectations that Trump's policies will boost digital assets. Total assets in the BlackRock Bitcoin Spot ETF (IBIT) exceeded $40 billion for the first time this past week. The surge coincided with large outflows from SPDR Gold Shares, the world's largest physical gold ETF. "One of the key implications of Trump's victory is that we may see less regulation of cryptocurrencies," said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco Advisers. "That should pull at least some capital out of gold; some of that speculative demand is now likely to shift to cryptocurrencies." (Bloomberg)