Gold just soared over $3,000 an ounce.<\/p>\n
But what if I told you there\u2019s a way to get exposure to MORE than an ounce of gold\u2026 for less than $20?<\/em><\/p>\n It sounds impossible. But it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n Our friends at Monument Traders Alliance have found a little-known gold play<\/u><\/a><\/strong> that gives you a way to claim a stake in over an ounce of gold for a fraction of the price.<\/p>\n But they don\u2019t expect this to last long\u2026<\/p>\n Click here to get all the details<\/u><\/a><\/strong> on what could be the greatest gold opportunity of our lifetime.<\/p>\n \u2013 Nicole Labra, Senior Managing Editor<\/p>\n Breakfast is expensive!<\/p>\n In fact, it\u2019s never been as pricey as it is today.<\/p>\n The average price of a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich with a cup of coffee stands at $3.16 today \u2013 compared to about $1.88 just before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the U.S.<\/p>\n You can see from the chart that the soaring price of eggs (in green) has contributed the most to the higher cost of that meal.<\/p>\n In February, the price of two eggs was $0.98 (a dozen went for about $5.90<\/a>). Pre-pandemic, those same two eggs cost about $0.25, or a quarter of today\u2019s price.<\/p>\n The price of coffee is also up significantly since before the pandemic. A pound of roast coffee cost about $4 back in December 2019. Today, it\u2019s about $7.20. For the breakfast meal, that equals about $0.37 present day, versus $0.21 back then.<\/p>\n Fed to the Rescue?<\/strong><\/p>\n So what does this pricey breakfast sandwich mean for the stock market?<\/p>\n Well, to be perfectly honest, the increase in the price of eggs is mostly due to avian flu \u2013 which forced farmers to slaughter more than 166 million chickens, most of them egg layers. And the price of coffee is being driven higher by a confluence of factors, including climate change, supply chain disruptions, and increased global demand, according to the Specialty Coffee Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the broader point is that consumer price inflation is proving to be sticky, with the inflation rate hovering around 3%. Sure, that\u2019s way down from the 9% rate we saw back in the summer of 2022. But it\u2019s still too high for the Federal Reserve, which has a target of 2% for the consumer price index.<\/p>\n And that means that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and the rest of the interest rate setting committee are likely not coming to the rescue in this highly-volatile market, which is down 9% from its February 19 peak, as measured by the S&P 500 (the Nasdaq Composite is already in correction territory).<\/p>\n Normally, a market like this would evoke talk of a \u201cFed Put.\u201d That\u2019s an interest rate cut designed to buck up investors and put a halt to the market decline \u2013 something like a put option that acts as a protective floor under a stock price. The Fed has stepped in many times in the past to implement such a safeguard for investors.<\/p>\n Yet this time around, the Fed may not be able to intervene. Powell and company are not expected to cut the benchmark interest rate today (the announcement on monetary policy will be around 2 p.m. ET this afternoon), or at the next meeting of the committee in May.<\/p>\n The Fed Funds Futures market does expect a quarter point cut in June, but I have my doubts about that. Because if President Trump\u2019s tariffs stay in place and push prices higher, as expected, the Fed would have to consider rate hikes, rather than cuts<\/em>, to try to rein in inflation.<\/p>\n Worse, if the tariffs and resulting trade war slow the U.S. economy and damage what has been a very healthy jobs market, the Fed will have to choose between fighting higher inflation or rescuing a deteriorating labor market.<\/p>\n And that brings us back to the breakfast sandwich and coffee. In January, Trump threatened to enact a 25% tariff on imports from Colombia \u2013 the second-largest supplier of coffee to the U.S., behind only Brazil \u2013 if that nation refused to allow deportation planes to land there. That briefly raised fears that coffee prices would spike even higher and sent coffee futures soaring. Luckily for American coffee drinkers, Colombia quickly agreed to Trump\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s beginning to dawn on many Americans \u2013 every day \u2013 that tariffs can do serious damage to an economy in multiple ways.<\/p>\n So if you find yourself shaking your head at the price of your breakfast sandwich \u2013 or any of its components \u2013 think about tariffs.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I\u2019ll be doing.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n![\"Pricey](\"https:\/\/dkwegfj7whlol.cloudfront.net\/oxford\/lw\/031925LTW-charts-pricey-breakfast.jpg\")
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