The cyclical nature of commodities and equities goes back at least until the 1970’s. When commodities are doing well, equities are performing poorly. Then the cycle flips and investors pile into equities, eventually making them expensive and commodities like gold and silver become cheap. But what do you get when you take the extremes of both equities and commodities? The extreme side of equities, technology stocks (NASDAQ Composite) being driven by lines of code you can’t touch. On the opposite end of commodities, you get tangible precious metals, silver and in particular gold. Tech investors versus gold and silver couldn’t be more different. Their history of being at a tug-of-war has rarely been discussed until now.
When we look at the NASDAQ Composite (NASDAQ) in relation to gold and silver in US dollars, going back to 1971, when the Nixon shock occurred. You get a striking relationship that confirms the cyclical nature between the commodities and equities. This was four years before Paul Allen and Bill Gates read the famous popular mechanics issue highlighting the world’s first microcomputer kit. That magazine propelled the creation of Microsoft. The 1970’s were a period of rising commodity prices, high inflation, a stagnant economy, and multiple recessions.
The Pendulum of Gold and Silver vs. NASDAQ Composite
1) 1971 – 1980: Commodities went on an epic bull run, increasing by more than twenty-five times, clearly outperforming the NASDAQ. By 1980, the NASDAQ was incredibly cheap relative to gold and silver.
2) 1980 – 2000: From 1980 onward capital flowed out of gold and silver and the overall commodities complex. as interest rates lowered, and confidence in the public sector was renewed. Equities were the cheap asset class in relation to commodities....