Amid such fervor for U.S. financial assets, gold’s solid year-to-date gains have been somewhat counter-intuitive. After trading in a tight $100-range for seven months, spot gold broke upwards through resistance at $1,300 in late August and touched an intraday high of $1,357.64 on 9/8/17 (up 17.8% year-to-date). Most investors are unaware that gold’s performance during this span exceeded the total-return of the S&P 500 (+11.51%) by some 55%! Conventional wisdom attributes gold’s recent strength to North Korean provocation and Mother Nature’s wrath, but this narrative ignores the fact that gold broke through $1,300 (on its third attempt in five months) before Chairman Kim’s 8/28 Hokkaido missile launch. We believe gold’s unheralded price-performance in 2017 carries an important signal for investors. Much to the Fed’s chagrin, economic and financial imbalances are bubbling to the surface (once again), placing consensus expectations for further FOMC tightening in jeopardy.