By Kim Clark
From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
The price of gold has plunged and spiked so dramatically in the past year that investors likely feel woozy.
Concerns about war in Europe helped push gold to just over $2,000 an ounce in March 2022. Then, rising interest rates eroded gold’s appeal, and prices fell to the low $1,600s. Now, worries about the economy have pushed gold prices to $2,000 again, close to 2020’s all-time high. The swings were even greater for gold-mining stocks, which are typically more volatile than the metal.
One mutual fund that tries to serve investors leery of gold’s volatility is First Eagle Gold (Symbol SGGDX), which manages more than $2 billion in assets. The fund’s managers balance a select list of about 20 stocks with holdings in gold and silver bullion. In 2022, the fund lost just 1.6 percent when precious-metals mutual funds lost nearly 15 percent, on average. It also edged out the 10.8 percent average gain for its category in the first quarter of 2023. As a result, First Eagle’s five-year annualized return of 10.1 percent puts it in the top 20 percent of the category….