Investors See Gold and Silver As 2023 Top Performers

Above, a 1928 Peace silver dollar. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

We're in a new year and precious metals retail investors are predicting what commodities will be 2023's top performers.

According to Kitco News:

(Kitco News) With precious metal picking up momentum towards the end of the year, Main Street investors look for gold and silver to be the top performers in the new year, according to Kitco's online survey.

Gold ended the year flat, while silver finished up nearly 3% in 2022. Spot gold kicked off 2022 at around $1,828 an ounce and ended it at just above $1,822 an ounce. Spot silver opened last year at $23.28 an ounce and ended the year at $23.93 an ounce.

"Thanks to an impressive recovery in the final quarter, the gold price ended the year at virtually the same level it began it," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

The biggest macro hurdle for precious metals in 2022 was the historic tightening cycle by the Federal Reserve, which saw the most rapid hiking pace since the early 1980s. Overall, rates climbed by 425 basis points in 2022, rising to a range between 4.25%-4.5%.

"In view of the considerable headwind generated by the pronounced rate hikes implemented by central banks, in particular the Fed, last year's performance of the gold, silver and platinum prices was thus remarkable," Fritsch noted.

Looking into the new year, analysts see gold and silver doing well as markets start to price in a Fed pivot.

To read more, go here. 

9 National Parks To Require Reservations In 2023

Above, Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Our national parks are more popular than ever. 

Over the past several years, people have been visiting them in higher numbers. The pandemic made attendance even higher.

This exposed them to overcrowding. This is a problem as it is the National Park Service's duty to protect them and having more people to contend with makes that duty more difficult.

Nine of our national parks are instituting a permanent reservation system to manage the influx of visitors.

From Fox 11 Los Angeles:

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns resulted in millions of stir-crazy Americans getting out of their houses the first chance they got and actually spending quality time outdoors, including at national parks. 

But the sudden influx of visitors at the nation's most historic natural sites caused a huge strain on the entire National Park infrastructure. The requirement of reservations soon became the new norm in order to handle the record-breaking traffic. 

Some parks have decided to drop their reservation requirements, but some have decided to the new system maybe should have been in place a long time ago. 

Of the 63 major National Parks in the U.S., nine are requiring some type of reservation on top of entrance fees in 2023. 

1. Acadia National Park, Maine

2. Arches National Park, Utah

3. Glacier National Park, Montana

4. Haleakala National Park, Hawaii

5. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

6. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

7. Yosemite National Park, California 

8. Zion National Park, Utah

9. Muir Woods National Monument, California 

To read more, go here. 

Coins: What Will 2023 Bring?

As we are closing in on 2023, people may be wondering what the new year will bring in the coin investing community. I don't see any signs that Bidenflation will taper off. Hopefully, I'm wrong. So I am still investing in silver coins.

At Coin World, their editorial staff took a peek at their crystal ball(s) to see what 2023 will bring.

They start it with:

As we prepare to enter the new year, let us look into our mythical crystal ball and attempt to predict what the numismatic community will witness in 2023. To do that, I solicited thoughts from our editorial staff.

Here's one prediction:

From Jeff Starck, senior editor for world coins:

“More coins, more themes, lower mintages.

“World mints and issuers will continue to work to offer something ‘unique’ to a broader audience, while paring down mintages, for new issues.

“Cash is not dead … but it may be on life support. The increasing use of technology in commerce (and the shift to online purchases) continues to threaten the need for real money in circulation, but enough systems and constituencies benefit from having coins and paper money to ensure that they are safe.

“What goes up, must go down. … Right? After raging demand for Morgan dollars, silver and gold American Eagles (among other segments), those markets (and maybe more) seem to understandably be ripe for a correction. Unless they aren’t. Nothing has made sense for some time.”

To read more, go here. 

2023 Hawaii Travel Forecasts

Above, hotels of Waikiki and Diamond Head. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It appears that travel to Hawaii has recovered since the pandemic.

There was a conference held in Phoenix, Arizona last week and Beat of Hawaii has some "takeaways" from that conference on what to expect in 2023 when it comes to Hawaii and other travel.

They begin with:

Trying to figure out what will happen in Hawaii travel next year is challenging at best in these uncertain times. We attended some of last week’s Global Travel Marketing conference in Phoenix. And here are takeaways for what’s ahead in Hawaii travel that you’ll want to know, including our cost prediction.

The good news is that the Hawaii travel industry has largely recovered post-Covid, and with the exception of international arrivals, is reaching or even going beyond 2019 volumes at times. That’s what we saw in 2022, and the travel forecast for 2023 may be vastly different, be it Hawaii, domestic travel overall, or international.

To read more, go here.