Rates are rising, and lawmakers are brawling over budget cuts. Fear is in retreat, and gold is getting kicked to the curb. Even the chartists are piling on the precious metal today, noting the occurrence of gold's first death cross in over a year, as the spot price dips below $1600 an ounce. As ominous as all of this seems, at least one gold bug says he is undeterred.
"I'm a fundamental guy. I care nothing about golden crosses or death crosses or anything of the kind," says Michael Pento, founder and president of Pento Portfolio Strategies. While he currently holds about 15% of his portfolio in gold and admits he's "not happy," he's confident his bullish call will vindicate him in the near future.
"The central bank has adopted an inflation target, and I believe Mr. Bernanke will hit that target — and exceed it," Pento adds.
Some readers will surely protest that inflation fears, while rampant, have yet to materialize. However, Pento says a combination of growing money supply, a mushrooming balance sheet at the Fed, our burgeoning Federal debt and deficit, a devalued dollar and global central bank demand for gold all bode well for the metal's second coming. Pento predicts this "huge advance" will drive gold to a record $2300 an ounce over the next 12 to 18 months.
As he sees it, gold is simply consolidating at this level after its previous monstrous rally took it from $250 to $1900. He adds that he would "use this pullback as an opportunity to accumulate" gold and gold mining stocks (GDX) and that this momentary stall is "not a reason to slit your wrists."
