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With U.S. political tensions rising, one expert says now is the time to hold on to gold. "There's so many potential black swans that could enter the scene so you want to hold gold as an investor right now," Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at John Hopkins University, told Kitco News.

The academic sees the metal heading towards $1,400 an ounce before year end as geopolitical events are leaving investors anxious, although he says gold prices could cool off ahead of the Federal Reserve's plans to raise interest rates and reduce its balance sheet.

After hitting its highest level this year, gold has fallen back on profit taking, but best-selling author of Currency Wars Jim Rickards isn't giving up on the metal just yet. "The bigger picture, the one I'm looking at, is that gold hit an interim low on Dec 15 and it's been grinding higher ever since. It's one of the best-performing assets of 2017," he told Kitco News.

Gold prices rallied to 11-month highs this week as North Korea launched a missile over Japan and even if tensions seem to have cooled off, pushing the safe-haven metal back down to around $1,312.70 an ounce, Rickards is not quite convinced. "People seem to have very short attention spans. I'm just looking down the road and you can see the war is coming," he said