Gold is traditionally an investment of choice when inflation is rising or global tensions are growing. But this year, despite the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, gold prices haven’t moved much, and inflation in much of the developed world is muted.

“I’m not buying gold at the moment,” international investor Jim Rogers tells The Daily Ticker. “But if the opportunity comes along — and it will in the next year or two — I will buy more.”

CLICK HERE to see the full interview

A few weeks ago, in my March 31 column, I told you that …

>> I am 100 percent confident precious metals will bottom this year and resume a new leg to the upside.

>> That the extreme emotions right now regarding gold and silver are typical at major turning points.

>> That all the underlying fundamental, cyclical and technical conditions for a new bull market in gold and silver are in place. The most important: The rising tide of the war cycles and global geo-political stress.

I also told you that while the short-term swings are always extremely difficult to pin down — and even far more difficult when entering a period where a major trend turn is expected …

I will get you as close to the bottom as humanly possible.

Naturally, subscribers to my Real Wealth Report and the members of my trading services will get the first buy signals. I’m sure you understand why.

And they will get the very first high-powered recommendations as well.

But I won’t leave you completely at the station. In fact, today I am going to give you an update on the latest action in gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Let’s start with gold:

On the surface, gold looks weak again. Over the past several trading sessions, it’s managed to rally as high as $1,315.80, but promptly fell back to the 1,284 level.

The swings are wild. The bulls and bears in gold are duking it out more than I have seen in a while. Again, typical of a major turning point.

At the same time, the main driving force — the ramping up of the war cycles — is front and center, with a new development: Extreme tension between China, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines over the Spratly Islands and South China Sea — is now rising to the surface as well.

Here’s what you want to keep your eyes on in gold:

Bigger picture: As long as gold holds $1,268.40 on a nearest futures basis (roughly $1,267 spot), gold should whip back and forth, but begin a move that will eventually take it first to $1,449 and then to $1,657 (then pause, pullback and then rally even higher).

Short-term: There is support at $1,272 and resistance at $1,331.

And here’s what you should be watching in silver:

Bigger picture: As long as silver holds $18.68 on a nearest futures basis (roughly $18.64 spot), silver too should whip back and forth, but begin a move that will eventually take it first to $22 and then to $28 (then pause, pullback and then rally even higher).

As I’ve mentioned in the past, make sure you have cash ready to deploy.

Specific recommendations are reserved for subscribers.

Also get ready to speculate on the unfolding new bull market in gold and silver. I myself am gearing up to make more money in gold and silver over the next few years than I have since their late 1970s bull market.

Now, let’s go to two metals I haven’t discussed in a long time. Platinum and palladium.

Let me start by putting it this way: These two metals are now shaping up to be as bullish and as profitable as gold and silver are, if not more.

First, platinum and palladium are the two most widely used of the platinum group of metals, or PGMs. And demand is set to rise … while supplies are limited and politically unstable.

The chief driver behind their demand is their increased use in pollution control devises, especially catalytic converters, where growth is exploding  exponentially, due to China’s and India’s auto markets and to increased mileage efficiency mandated by policy makers globally.

In fact, the automotive sector now accounts for as much, if not more, than 38 percent of the demand for palladium and 71 percent for platinum.

In addition, China has become a huge market for platinum jewelry, making up nearly 70 percent of global demand.

But here are the real kickers:

 Russia accounts for as much as 54 percent of the world’s total mine production of platinum and palladium … while South Africa accounts for as much as 75 percent of platinum production and 38 percent of palladium production.

At the same time …

 The ore grade of the platinum group metals, that is the amount of the metals found in ore, is declining rapidly, with a plunge of more than 50 percent in ore grades in Russia and South Africa combined since 1998.

But most important of all are the war cycles. Besides the increased use of these metals in high-tech military equipment, there is the very real chance that we will see Russia sanction the West by withholding part, or even all, of its platinum group metals from the market.

Again, specific recommendations for platinum and palladium are reserved for my subscribers. For now, I merely want to give you a heads up that these are two metals you will not want to ignore if you intend on maximizing your profits in the next leg up in precious metals.

I end with the same message as last time: Stay tuned in, very tuned in, to all of my writings.

If you do not, you may miss the most explosive turnaround to the upside — ever — in the precious metals sector.

Best wishes,

Larry

P.S. As I said at the outset, I am 100 percent confident precious metals will bottom this year and resume a new leg to the upside.  Don’t miss the explosive turnaround! Subscribe to my Real Wealth Report and you won’t be left in the dust.

In a moment, I’m going to tell you about the recent action in gold and silver, what it means, and some surprising conclusions.

But first, you need to know more about the cycles of war that I’ve been telling you about, how they are ramping up so quickly, and more specifically, about Putin.

First, let’s take a look at the war cycles. In early 2013, over a year ago, I warned everyone that the war cycles were set to explode higher, on the backbone of bankrupt Western economies.

It’s a fait accompli. War and bankrupt economies go hand in hand. When desperate, like the governments of the United States and Europe are now, strange things start to happen.

You only need look at the historical record. The collapse of Rome was accompanied by many different civil rebellions and international conflicts.

Ditto for the Ottoman Empire. The British Empire, when it fell on desperate times. For Spain. For Germany.

For every major economic power throughout history, when governments became bankrupt and desperate for cash, they imploded by attacking others and their very own citizens, through sleight-of-hand tax increases, through confiscatory policies that first racked everyone’s money, then confiscated it, through loss of civil liberties, through propaganda and more, lots more.

Weakened, they lash out. They prepare to rally the people, they look for distractions, reasons to spend even more money, all with the aim of consolidating the national psyche.

This is what the United States is doing now. Russia is doing the same thing. Putin is rallying the national psyche. The Russian economy, weakened internally by corruption, by alcoholism, by declining revenues from the three-year bear market in commodities, is not in much better shape than Europe or the United States.

So the battlefield is now prepped. Russia versus the West. Russia versus Europe and the United States.

And it is now entering a new, more dangerous phase. Military conflict is almost always preceded by economic warfare. And Putin is about to pull the trigger and respond to sanctions against Russia with his own sanctions against the West.

[Editor’s note: As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars wind down, a series of new civil and regional wars are about to EXPLODE overseas. Find out in Larry’s FREE report, Rumors of War, the key sectors that will see MASSIVE profits as foreign investors flee overseas markets in panic.]

Billions of dollars in foreign investment in some of the world’s biggest untapped oil reserves are at risk. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), for instance, has drilling rights to 11.4 million net acres (46,134 square kilometers) in Russia, the company’s biggest single cache of drilling rights outside the United States.

Other major companies with big investments in Russia include Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS-A), PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) and Alcoa (AA). Then there are a slew of medium- and large-sized companies from the West that are also at risk of getting hit by Putin.

U.K companies are most worried about their financial services in Russia. France is worried about military sales and luxury goods. Germany has the biggest trade with Russia. And Switzerland and Germany also have the biggest banking and loan exposure to Russia.

At the same time …

Russia is hemorrhaging from capital outflows, a record $60 billion in Q1 alone.

Savvy Russian investors want out. They’re not about to sit around and see their capital get caught up in an economic war, probably followed by military conflict.

So they’re moving their money. Europeans are moving money out of Europe as well. Which leads me to my next point …

During not-so-normal times like we have today, the flow of capital is what determines major market moves.

Not supply/demand fundamentals. Not GDP, inflation, central bank policies.

Not even price-to-earnings ratios, or corporate balance sheets or anything most analysts use to predict market movements.

It’s capital flows, from one nation to another, from one stock market to another, from one savvy investor’s pockets to any investment that can help that investor get their money to safety, off the grid to a market that is liquid, that offers a decent chance at some type of return, and where preservation of capital is also of utmost importance.

$60 billion coming out of Russia in Q1 may not seem like a lot, but when I look at the war cycles and how they ramp up for six more years …

When I consider how quickly they are ramping up only two years into the process …

And I consider the miserable shape that Europe is in …

I am more confident than ever before that my forecasts are on track and that …

First, we will soon see gold and silver take off like a bat out of hell.

Second, we will soon see the U.S. equity markets soar to one new record high after another (after a correction is complete).

Third, we will soon see the next wave down in the prices of sovereign bonds in Europe and the Unites States …

And the next wave higher in interest rates …

With all of this likely to happen in the face of a rising dollar, falling foreign currencies …

While the majority of analysts and investors are caught flat-footed, on the wrong side of the markets.

Right now, gold and silver are still on the cusp of a major new bull market, one that could end up even more powerful than even I originally expected.

Chief reason: This past week’s market action. Silver made a new low, taking out its December low, while gold remains nearly $100 above its equivalent December low.

This is what is called a “bearish non-confirmation” — a technical term that describes a situation when two related markets behave differently at an important low, where one market makes a new low and the other doesn’t.

And typically, it is extremely bullish.

Only time will tell, but right now, the patterns I see emerging in gold and silver tell me that …

1. Gold and silver are about to take off to the upside. Or …
2. We have one more final low coming for both, a short swift downdraft …

But one that will merely compress the springs all that much tighter and lead to an explosive rally immediately thereafter.

So just like the battlefield has been prepped between Russia and the West, the war cycles are now dominating the action in gold and silver …

And they will soon create an explosive rally in the precious metals, the likes of which we have not seen in a very, very long time.

It’s now not so much a matter of time, but of price level. Will gold take off from here, or slightly lower levels?

Either way, we are now merely a few yards away from the time when I will scream from the rooftops “Backup the truck now in gold and silver!”

If there is one thing you do the rest of this year to help insure you protect and grow your money, it is this:

Stay tuned in, very tuned in, to all of my writings.

If you do not, you may miss the most explosive turnaround to the upside — ever — in gold and silver.

Best wishes,

Larry