Be happy you lugged that gold bar all the way back from Costco when you did—because the precious metal is pricier than ever now.

Gold breached the $3,000 per oz mark today for the first time ever, a historic milestone to cap off a winning run for the currency.

The metal, whose reputation for being a safe haven against geopolitical chaos precedes it, has certainly been in demand lately. Between the stock market crashing, Trump’s game of retaliatory tariff whack-a-mole, the US sharply pivoting away from its historic geopolitical allies, and an ongoing war in Ukraine, investors can’t get enough protection against volatility.

Year to date, gold is up 14.81%, following a stellar 26% gain in 2024.

But investor interest in gold isn’t even the whole story: Since 2022, central banks have been growing their gold stockpiles by rapidly increasing purchases as they try to move away from relying so heavily on the US dollar.

In 2024, central banks purchased 1,045 metric tons of gold, over double the amount they acquired between 2011 and 2021, according to the World Gold Council. China, India, Poland, and Turkey are some of the largest buyers in the world.

“Gold has finally gotten above the $3,000 level, albeit slightly, and it's done it without much help from the western investor,” wrote Chief Investment Officer of Bleakley Financial Group Peter Boockvar in a note today. “The main buying continues to be foreign central banks and governments and I'm confident that the western buyers of gold will catch up and remain a sort of fresh buying powder. We remain long and bullish gold,” he added.

All that glitters

While gold has already raced past even the most bullish analysts’ expectations, most believe that the commodity won’t lose its sparkle anytime soon.

Last month, Goldman Sachs raised its price target for gold up to $3,100 per oz, up from its previous target of $2,890. And just yesterday, Macquarie Group said the commodity could reach as high as $3,500 per oz in the third quarter of the year due to concerns about the growing US budget deficit.

But if you aren’t a big Costco person, investing in gold ETFs, such as the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), is just as good an option—although far less fun to show off.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Crown Castle popped 10.37% after the communication infrastructure company announced it’s selling its fiber optics unit for $8.5 billion.
• Ulta Beauty crushed analyst earnings expectations last quarter, and despite weak forward guidance the beauty supplier still rose 13.68%.
• DocuSign just managed to squeak past Wall Street forecasts last quarter, but positive fiscal forecasts for the year ahead powered the stock 14.81% higher.
• Rubrik, which does not make Rubik’s Cubes and is in fact a cybersecurity company, soared 27.77% after management promised that an economic slowdown won’t hurt the bottom line.
• PagerDuty sounds like it should have gone out of business in the ‘90s, but the cybersecurity company rose 17.75% after it, too, forecast strong results ahead.
• Peloton cycled 16.14% higher after analysts at Canaccord Genuity declared the stationary bike company has reached “a turning point."
• Quantum computing stocks soared a day after D-Wave Quantum unveiled solid quarterly earnings. Rigetti Computing popped 28.23%, Quantum Computing climbed 29.14%, and D-Wave itself surged 46.89%.

What’s down

• T-Mobile tumbled 1.20% on a downgrade from Citi analysts who are worried that they don’t see any reasons for the wireless network provider to earn its high valuation.
• Li Auto sank 4.39% after the Chinese EV maker dashed shareholders’ hopes of a forthcoming recovery.

If you’re a bit worried about the economy these days, you’re not alone.

The University of Michigan released a preliminary reading of consumer sentiment today, and the news is not great. Overall consumer sentiment fell 10.5% to 57.9 for the third straight month of declines, bringing sentiment to its lowest level since November 2022 (as you can see in the chart above).

It’s not hard to understand why consumers are feeling a tad anxious these days. Job cuts across the federal government, a slowing labor market, daily tariff mayhem, a stock market selloff, and sticky inflation have all combined into a scary smorgasbord that has Americans worried about an economic slowdown. Ironically, recession fears mean consumers are more likely to save more and spend less, hurting companies’ bottom lines and exacerbating the very problems consumers are worried about.

Speaking of inflation, our old friend seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. Inflation expectations the year ahead climbed to 4.9%, the highest level since November 2022, according to the survey. Looking even further ahead, long-term inflation expectations over the next five years jumped to 3.9%, the highest level in 32 years.

TLDR: People are worried, and worries beget market selloffs, and selloffs mean more worries. If this vicious cycle isn’t stopped soon, it’s going to bring more bad news for consumers and investors alike.

One silver lining of the great tariff selloff of 2025? Previously overvalued tech stocks are starting to look pretty cheap.

Rabid AI hype propelled a group of select Big Tech stocks into the stratosphere over the past two years, high enough to give these companies their own super cool nickname: The Magnificent 7. This small but mighty handful of stocks accounted for about a third of the S&P 500’s gains in 2024.

But this year, the AI trade has begun to dwindle. Investors have moved to defensive corners of the market, and a Chinese startup left Silicon Valley floored when it proved it could build a high-quality AI model just like the Magnificent 7 without blowing billions of dollars on super-advanced semiconductors.

And that was all before stocks fell hard after Trump’s tariffs sent everyone into a panic. Now, the biggest stocks on the market are looking like some of the biggest busts: These seven stocks have lost a combined $2.7 trillion in market value over the last three weeks alone. Here’s how they’re doing in 2025:

• Nvidia, the biggest name in the AI game, has sunk 12.03% this year
• Alphabet is down 12.64%
• Apple has fallen 12.45%
• Amazon has tumbled 10.11%
• Microsoft is down 7.17%
• Only Meta Platforms has risen this year, up a measly 1.40%
• But Tesla has suffered the biggest selloff, plummeting 34.09% year to date

Can AI still pay off?

While Nvidia has recovered 10.78% over the last five days, the chipmaker is only trading at about 23 times earnings per share forecasts over the next 12 months—far lower than its five-year average of 40 times, according to Barron’s.

That means Nvidia is now cheaper than Starbucks, Walmart, Netflix, and Chipotle, among others, based on their forward price/earnings ratios.

But Nvidia isn’t the only AI darling that’s in the bargain bin. Morningstar analysts think that four of the Mag 7 members are now undervalued: Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet.

Of course, whether we’re just at the beginning of the AI revolution or China will eat Silicon Valley’s lunch depends on who you ask.

“We believe this is Year 3 of what will be an 8-10 year build out of the AI Revolution. Will there be some near-term headwinds from Trump Policy...yes...but this in no way changes the $2 trillion of AI Cap Ex on the horizon,” explained Wedbush analyst and noted tech bull Dan Ives. “We also believe valuation-wise many of these tech stocks are not expensive (Nvidia, Microsoft, etc) and not fully reflecting the sheer growth opportunities happening over the coming years.”—LB

• 30 high-quality stocks that can endure the stock market selloff.
• YouTube creators are coming to a TV screen near you, as stars like Mr. Beast cash in on the spotlight.
• Gen Z spent almost twice as much as it saved in February, and doesn’t have enough savings to cover a single month of expenses.
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he’ll vote in favor of a spending bill to avert a government shutdown scheduled for midnight tonight.
• Eggs-traordinary measures: The US has asked Sweden for help with its ongoing egg shortage.
• A record 27 CEOs were fired in 2024 after going toe to toe with activist investors, and there’s no sign of a slowdown in 2025.

Okay, c’mon—after these last few weeks of craziness, we’ve got to get a break next week. Right? Right???

The big announcement to watch for comes on Wednesday when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) wraps its two-day meeting to determine its next monetary policy move. The meeting itself shouldn’t bring any major moves—right now the market predicts a 99% chance that the Fed doesn’t cut interest rates next week. But looking into Jerome Powell’s steely eyes and hearing him tell us that everything is going to be alright could go a long way toward soothing investor fears.

As for economic data, we’ll switch gears and focus on the real estate market next week: Monday is the home builder confidence index, Tuesday delivers housing starts & building permits, and on Thursday we get existing home sales, as well as the usual initial jobless claims report.

Finally, these next two weeks are the very tail end of the earnings season, so expect a serious slowdown for quarterly announcements.

Wednesday: General Mills, Williams Sonoma, Five Below, Signet Jewelers, and Ollie’s Bargain Outlet

Thursday: Nike, FedEx, Micron Technology, Lennar, Accenture PLC, PDD Holdings, and KinderCare Learning Companies

Friday: Carnival Corp, and Nio

There may be more volatility ahead next week, but hey, at least Monday is St. Patrick’s Day—so grab a stiff drink and brace yourself for more market mayhem.