Right now, I think it is the Federal Reserve which is pumping up the markets. And, it is thought that they are about to stop this and begin to raise interest rates with the excuse being that they need to control inflation.
As I mentioned before, March 25 is a very significant date, and where China will begin buying oil using a gold backed Yuan. Since China is the largest oil importer on the planet, it would mean that there is going to be a large decrease in demand for the U.S. Dollar.
Only 35 thousand tons of official gold in the world.
China has bought 3 or 4 thousand tons.
Russia has bought a thousand tons.
--James G. Rickards, July 14, 2016--
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) boosted its holdings of gold by almost 20 metric tons last month, with reserves reaching 1,857 tons.
Russia is now among the top five gold holders after surpassing China, which reportedly holds 1,843 tons. Over the last 15 years, Moscow and Beijing have been aggressively accumulating gold reserves to cut their dependence on the US dollar.
https://www.rt.com/business/419820-russia-outpaces-china-gold/
Also, there is talk about China/Russia offering to purchase controlling interest in the Saudi Arabia Aramco IPO. I don't think that China would offer to buy Aramco stock unless Saudi Arabia agreed to allow China to purchase Saudi oil with the Yuan. This would be a huge game changer.
Leading up to the March 25th date, I think we can expect interest rate hikes and then they will need to quickly pile on with huge interest hikes as there will be less of a demand for U.S. Dollars/Treasury coupons. The U.S. will need to drastically increase interest rates in order to attract people into buying up demand for U.S. Dollars.
Just to show you how desperate the U.S. really is ..... they are economically attacking their "Friends" (Mexico/Canada) with import duties in an attempt to bring capital into America.