Bull Market for Gold Just Beginning, Portfolio Manager Joseph Foster Tells CNBC
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gold prices continue to jump, hitting a new 52-week high of $1,377.50 per ounce on Wednesday, as investors seek shelter from volatile global markets.
This is on the beginning of a bull market for gold, Joseph Foster, the portfolio manager and strategist of Gold and Precious Metals at Van Eck Securities, believes.
"Gold thrives on financial risk ... and there's a lot of financial risk in the system right now," Foster said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" today.
Four factors are increasing financial risk and driving investors to gold: The U.K. referendum to leave the European Union, "the Fed is unable to normalize interest rates, the central banks' radical or unconventional monetary policies, [and] the stock market in the U.S. is topping out," Foster noted.
Gold is a way to hedge against drops in the value of currencies and Foster says the monetary and fiscal policies around the world "have been promulgated over the last five, seven years."
Despite warnings of a coming correction in the gold market, Foster notes "the precious metals market has gone from strength to strength all year and so I think it can continue for the remainder of the year."
Gold mining companies are "much better managed ... than they were a few years ago," Foster added, making them much more attractive investments.