It should come as no surprise that gold and silver acted similarly, rising sharply during the early hours of the crisis and retreating as tensions abated.

If the costs of financing the national debt increase in a manner described in this study, that should, in our opinion, be regarded as a long-term plus for the precious metals.

These moves were the first serious interruption to the bull market, which had not encountered a serious decline since the election of November, 2016. Since general market moves have been one of the most reliable historic indicators of precious metals market moves, we take a close look at these developments.

This past month has been filled with headline-grabbing news events and, for a change, it was not only politics that dominated those news stories, but rather financial markets themselves, with gold and mining shares grabbing a major share of attention.