| Gold’s returns are getting hard to ignore. The precious metal has been hitting record after record, with investors looking to safe-haven assets in the face of uncertain US economic policy. This week it topped $3,500 an ounce — a more than 40% jump from a year ago — on concerns President Donald Trump’s possible firing of Fed Chair Jerome Powell could trigger a flight from US stocks, bonds and the dollar. Gold prices have since retreated with some trader profit-taking, but there’s still a question of whether there’s more room to run. That’s why this week I called four financial advisers to ask them what’s happening and if now is a good time to buy. The consensus: Gold can be a good diversifier. But don’t go running into it without a good strategy. And don’t do it all at once, especially now. Volatility boosts gold “In times like this, gold really shines,” said Alex Caswell of Wealth Script Advisors in San Francisco, intending the pun. Uncertainty increases the appeal of gold as a haven asset, particularly when other safe bets look less so. President Trump’s zig-zagging trade policy and attacks on the Federal Reserve have hit investor confidence in the US dollar and Treasury bonds, giving gold an opening. At the same time, purchases from central bankers have also been driving its rally. Gold’s rise has validated so-called gold bugs. Ardent fans have varied reasons for going big, ranging from fears about inflation to geopolitical risk to the potential collapse of fiat currency. A unifying theme Caswell sees is that gold bugs typically think that in some way, something in the world is wrong. “But what could go wrong is that things can go right,” he said. As has happened after numerous wars, recessions and political crises in history, calm may return to the stock market. Stability may return to the world’s reserve currency. And the price of gold could drop again. Look to the 2010s if you need an example of how going too heavy into gold could hurt you, said Ken Nuttall of BlackDiamond Wealth in New York. Gold hit a peak in September of 2012 that it didn’t reach again until mid-2020. That might not matter to long-term investors, but someone who had a shorter time horizon — such as a retiree — may have had to clock losses if they needed to spend those assets within that nearly eight-year span. So how much should you invest? I put that question to each adviser I called. Their answers ranged from 0-10% of your portfolio. “You wouldn’t want to hold more than 5% in any individual stock,” said John Bell of Free State Financial Planning in Highland, Maryland. He said the same applies to gold, which investors should think of as a singular position in a portfolio. Given gold’s recent records, the concern is that investors end up buying at a high. One way to mitigate this risk is to dollar-cost average into it, said Bell. If you have $50,000 you’d like to invest in gold, you could buy $5,000 a month for 10 months, rather than making one bet on its price now. What’s the best way to get exposure? You have a few options here, and my colleagues have a very good gold-buying guide on the pros and cons of each one. The long and short: You could own physical gold, but that comes with the challenge — and possible expense — of having to safely store it. (Read this if you want to hear some wild stories of people going to extremes to do just that.) In general, the advisers I spoke with liked gold ETFs for their ease and liquidity. They advised checking expenses and whether or not the ETF is backed by actual gold, not derivatives based on its price, which can add risk. Biggest picture, consider gold neither as your ultimate safe haven, nor as a get-rich-quick scheme, but as a diversifier, said Peter Palion of Master Plan Advisory in East Norwich, New York. “When there’s a downturn in one asset class, you can benefit from the other doing nothing or even perhaps even going up,” he said. That seems to be happening now. — Charlie Wells P.S. Send questions about your own financial dilemmas to bbgwealth@bloomberg.net. We may get expert answers for you, and feature your question and the answer in an upcoming newsletter. Procter & Gamble cut its annual sales and profit outlook. The consumer goods giant lowered its guidance, citing volatility in consumer demand and trade disputes. The maker of Tide detergent expects organic sales growth this year of approximately 2% versus the prior year, the company said Thursday. That’s lower than the 3% to 5% increase the company forecast in January. The dollar’s slide is raising red flags for corporate earnings. The currency’s dip to three-year lows versus the euro and to a 10-year trough against the Swiss franc is another headache for stock markets grappling with the risk of an economic slowdown due to President Trump’s policies on trade. Given that Stoxx 600 index members get 60% of their sales from overseas, such a large dollar slide is unwelcome, as it would sharply reduce the worth of US earnings once converted back into local European currencies. As a result, US-exposed stocks in the region are falling with the dollar. The biggest weekly gainers and losers on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index through the close of trading Wednesday: Bob Duggan gained the most in percentage terms. Duggan is largest shareholder in Summit Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical oncology company. The company’s stock gained some 40%, bringing Duggan’s net worth to $21.8 billion in a 35% gain. Jensen Huang lost the most in dollar terms. The president and chief executive of Nvidia lost $1.7 billion, which took his net worth down to $90 billion. The majority of Huang’s fortune is derived from his stake in Nvidia, whose shares are trading near their lowest valuation of the artificial intelligence era. US New-Home Sales Top All Estimates on Surge in the South  Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg Sales of new homes in the US jumped last month on a welcome dip in mortgage rates and ongoing sales incentives to kick off the crucial spring selling season. Purchases of new single-family homes increased 7.4% in March to an annualized rate of 724,000, mostly driven by a surge in the South, according to government data released Wednesday. That exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. US Mortgage Rates Rise Again, Reach Highest Since Mid-February US mortgage rates rose again last week, reaching the highest level since mid-February and further depressing the appetite to buy homes or refinance loans. The contract rate on a 30-year mortgage climbed 9 basis points to 6.90% in the week ended April 18, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday. That followed a 20 basis-point jump in the prior week, marking the biggest back-to-back increase since early November. Mortgage rates track US Treasury yields, which have risen recently as they lose their appeal as a safe haven. The Trump administration’s tariffs and threats to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell are causing a reappraisal of US assets and damaging investor confidence in the central bank’s independence. This week, we’re looking for people who are having a hard time fitting student-loan payments into their budgets. If this is you or someone you know, we’d love to set up a time to speak. Some of our best journalism at Bloomberg Wealth comes from your own stories and we want to hear from you, your friends or clients. Please email bbgwealth@bloomberg.net if you’d like to get in touch. | 
