Political Turmoil Expected to influence Gold

Gold turned negative on Tuesday as U.S. Treasuries rose after the United States and Mexico struck a trade deal, with analysts saying ongoing U.S.-China tensions would continue to weigh. Spot gold lost 0.4 percent to $1,206.39 per ounce during Tuesdays trading hours.

Following suit, Gold price fell on Thursday and is set to record a fifth monthly fall on expectations of a higher interest rate, while the dollar also edged lower.  Powell’s speech came after U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he was “not thrilled” about the Fed’s decision to hike rates. A potential hike in interest rates in general decreases demand for gold, which yields no interests.

Meanwhile, the U.S. reported on Wednesday the strongest growth of its second-quarter GDP in a decade, expanding at an annual rate of 4.2%.

Markets widely expect the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates in September and December following last week’s Jackson Hole symposium, where Fed’s chairman Jerome Powell defended policy of interest rate hikes, adding that he expected a low but gradual growth of interest rates as inflation is reaching the country’s 2% target.

On the other hand, metals investors are wondering if political turmoil could bring in volatility several for gold and silver prices.

Furthermore, what gained focus over the week were the recent prosecutions of prominent Trump campaign figures that now have Democrats giddy over the possibility of being handed grounds for impeachment. The chances for impeachment did get a boost, although it would seem to hinge primarily on whether the Republicans lose the House and Senate in November. It’s a very daunting political task. Only two presidents have ever been impeached – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Neither were convicted in the Senate and removed from office, however. That can only be done with a ⅔ majority vote.

If the threat of impeachment somehow becomes more credible based on the revelation of more serious crimes, then all bets are off. It will move markets. But, for now at least, it remains a long shot.

Major political turmoil is just one of many reasons to buy insurance in the form of gold and silver bullion. Investors can add upheaval in Washington to a longer list, which, at the moment, also includes:

• Precious metals looking oversold.
• Extremely bullish relative positioning of banks versus speculators in the Commitment of Traders data.

Time to Divert Our Attention Outside America

The precious metal is down 8% so far in 2018, and nearly 14% on an annualized basis - making it the worst-performing major asset class this year.

Gold has weakened this year alongside many emerging-market currencies because the dollar strengthened and US interest rates became more attractive. On August 13, gold fell below the key technical level of $1,200 an ounce for the first time since early 2017. It traded up 0.7% to $1,202.90 an ounce on Friday.

It may have gained by the end of the week, but it’s still a weak asset currently.  Spot gold was up one percent at $1,196.39 an ounce during Friday’s trading session, about 3 percent higher than last week’s 2018 low below $1,160.00.

Growing U.S. political uncertainty, reinforced by the legal woes of two of U.S. President Donald Trump’s former advisers this week, is keeping the dollar under pressure despite tighter U.S. monetary policy, analysts say.

By Friday, 27th August, gold prices saw a rally as investors took Powell’s speech as a more dovish stance, which seemed to rule out the need for a more aggressive tightening as he suggested a lack of inflationary pressure and put the warning for further gradual increases in interest rates on a continuation of current economic strength and a strong labor market.

In his speech, Powell indicated that there was no clear sign of an acceleration above the Fed’s 2% inflation objective and said there did not seem to be an elevated risk of the economy overheating.

Gold prices traded higher on Friday as Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell emphasized the central bank’s plans for gradual interest rate hikes would be conditioned on the continued strength of the U.S. economy and labor market.

Higher interest rates tend to weigh on demand for gold, which doesn’t bear interest, in favour of yield-bearing investments. The remarks also weighed on the dollar, extending the greenback’s losses and increasing the demand of the precious metal for holders of foreign currencies.
As the most recent FOMC statement indicates, if the strong growth in income and jobs continues, further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will likely be appropriate.

Gold is usually favoured as a safe haven during market turmoil, but even all the back and forth on trade between the US and China has not stirred up a bid for the metal as the dollar still hold strong.
The commodities market has been adversely impacted by the strong dollar and the discussion of a trade war possibility, which may already be happening. With the economies of America, Europe and Asia picking up, most investors are asking, why buy gold or silver? The dollar is the key. When it starts dropping, we will see the price of gold, silver and all commodities improve.

Many foreign governments and companies have borrowed in dollars, thinking the dollar will go lower relative to their own currencies. But the dollar has done the complete opposite. So now, these borrowers of $US are being squeezed as their borrowing costs have risen dramatically. This is creating financial distress in certain corners of the world. At these locations the price of gold will be seen climbing quickly.

But when will this happen? Will the dollar weaken? When will we see the gold prices going up? Will global uncertainties rise? There are many questions floating in the market currently.
And hence we all need to divert our attention to some of the developing problems that exist outside America and how it will impact America and furthermore the dollar.

Winds of change for Gold

Though gold has not performed as per expectations, we saw it glittering once again by the end of the previous week.

Friday saw the gold price pick up significantly to end at over $1,180 after spending much of the period in the low $1,170s, but the rise was almost all due to a turnaround in the U.S. dollar index which slipped back a little.

Dollar was going weak in the first quarter of 2018.This led to a rise in gold prices which reached above $1350 in April. There were positive sentiments for the yellow metal and traders expected it to cross $1400. 

But from mid April, with the rhetoric around the Trump trade tariff impositions taking centre stage, it all turned around. The dollar started to strengthen and the gold price, along with most other metal and mineral commodities priced in U.S. dollars, began to slip accordingly. As the tariff impositions moved from conjecture (many thought President Trump might be bluffing) to reality and counter measures were threatened and put in place by affected nations, the dollar started to rise and has not really looked back apart from the odd stutter since.

The same sentiment was witnessed in the past week. On 13 August 2018, the price of gold fell below 1.200 USD/oz, declining to a 1.5 year low. There are many factors that have triggered this down fall.
Even thought gold jumped up on Friday, the yellow metal is around $170 down on its peak earlier in the year. That’s over 9% down on the year to date and over 12% down from its peak.


Let’s have a look at the key influential factors-

Demand for US Dollar - Given recent market uncertainty – amongst other things due to the Turkish Lira crisis and other emerging market currencies being affected by the turmoil – investors have substantially increased their demand for the Greenback. It does not only serve as a "safe haven" currency, but it also offers a positive interest rate (e.g. 2-year US bills offering a yield of around 2.6 per cent). In the international context, this is a rather attractive combination from an investor's point of view. What follows is an appreciating US dollar and – as its flipside – a decline in the price of gold in US dollar terms.

Fed Rate Hike - the Fed's hiking cycle might be closer than the market expects. The reason lies in the growing international US dollar indebtedness. In the period of extreme low US interest rates, many foreign borrowers – in particular, those from emerging market economies – have taken on US dollar denominated debt. An appreciating US dollar causes them quite some trouble: It increases the costs of serving their debt. What is more, it makes rolling-over maturing US dollar debt more difficult: Lenders become hesitant to renew loans, and if they do, they can be expected to charge higher interest rates

Dependence on U.S Economy - Due to the high dependence of many economies around the globe on the US dollar, the Fed can no longer gear its monetary policy to the needs of the US economy alone. It can no longer ignore the consequences its monetary policy is most likely to have on other economies around the world. While the US economy may well need higher interest rates, many countries will have significant problems coping with US borrowing costs going up. As soon as the financial markets find out that the Fed cannot continue its US economy-centred monetary policy, there is a decent chance that the reserve currency status of the US dollar will be critically reviewed. So there is quite a possibility that the currently unshakable belief in the Greenback's safe-haven status will lose some of its shine.

But we can surely say one thing - The wind of change is definitely in the air for gold prices
After the Labor Day holiday in the U.S. in the first week in September things could start to change though as perhaps some of the trade war rhetoric will cool, China will come back to the negotiating table and the dollar index may ease giving gold some welcome respite.

Physical demand is coming back, which is a great sign for prices in the second half of the year.  Lower gold prices are starting to stimulate better physical demand, particularly from India. This might lead to rally in gold prices in the near future.

Gold being pulled between bulls and bears

Lately, gold has shown a typically consistent price pattern. It has witnessed a lot of pull and push in the trade range. It generally starts on a negative note, recovers and is pulled down again. So it’s a wave like movement, which leaves the markets perplexed over its behavior.

It’s difficult for market players to project or analyse the markets for gold- whether it’s bullish or bearish. This has been going on for quite some days now. As gold moves up and the market expects it to cross the key levels. Something contradictory happens and the yellow metal starts trading negative again.

The classic example of this would be the recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting on July 31/August 1.

 The U.S. Fed chair Jerome Powell’s statement on the U.S. economy and likely Fed interest rate policy for the remainder of the year strengthened the dollar and pushed gold’s trading range back around $20.

When the data released was not par expectations, gold did manage to trade high, but then was pulled down over rate hike expectations.

So right now the market is divided in to groups. This that want the yellow metal to fall below $1200 and those that would like gold to strengthen and cross $1400. So there is a kinda tug of war between the $1200- $1400 trade range.

In the short, probably in the coming month gold looks negative. It might be down. But is soon expected to gain momentum as we the onset of the festive season in India which will mark a rise in demand for gold. Apart from this, equities look weak and markets might shift to gold as an alternative investment.

One more important thing that will contribute to these rising prices is bitcoins. After the much hype surrounding this investment option, it’s not being welcomes by the parties that are suspicious about its future.

Coming to our main point of discussion, Will gold stick to the bears market or is it expected to enter the bulls. Well it depends on the following factors-

• Markets returning to trade after U.S. Labor Day Holiday
• Dollar
• Chinese import tariffs laid by the U.S and reaction/actions of the Chinese government
• U.S inflation
• Fed policies
• ECB
• Russia’s market volatility

Gold, too, has historically had a role as a haven asset in times of global market turbulence. Now, Financial markets continue to watch for any evidence that might knock the Fed off its projected path to raise interest rates twice more this year and three times next year. Apart from that any global uncertainty is expected will be welcomed by the bull supporters for gold. Markets also await the onset of the festive season in India, which will see a rise in the demand for the yellow and thus push up gold prices further. So currently along with the US economy happenings, a lot of global factors will also play a key role in influencing gold prices. Any sudden event can boost the yellow metal high towards the end of 2018.

Gold expected to end the year on a positive note

Spot gold, which is down over 6 per cent this year, is close to a one-year low of $1,211.08 touched on July 19 as the dollar powered to a one-year high on expectations of higher US interest rates this year.

Gold's appeal has been fading this year with prices sliding near to the key US$1,200 level, partly because of an upbeat outlook on the US economy that's strengthened the dollar.

Gold prices were higher on Friday, after disappointing jobs data pushed the U.S. dollar lower but still remained near two-week lows. A stronger dollar and rising interest rates have weighed on gold in recent months.

Gold prices are seeing just modest gains in the aftermath of a U.S. non-farm jobs number that did not meet market expectations.

The U.S. employment report for July showed –
• A significantly lower-than-expected non-farm payrolls rise of 157,000 jobs. The number was forecast at up 190,000, but after
• Wednesday’s ADP national employment report for July that showed a rise of 219,000, many were looking for a non-farm jobs number north of 200,000.

Markets believe that U.S economy is on its path of gradual progress and hence they didn’t react much to these numbers. One more reason for less volatility could be the vacation season in U.S and Europe that continue to keep the, markets calm until U.S. Labour Day holiday.

Even though these numbers were below expectations, it did strengthen the Federal Reserve action to gradually increase interest rates.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, as expected, but pointed to the potential for increased rate hikes due to strong U.S. economic data.

Higher rates are a negative for gold as the precious metal, which does not pay interest, struggles to compete with yield-bearing assets when rates rise.

Furthermore, the metal saw some relief on Friday as U.S. hiring cooled in July and China moved to support its currency.

But markets are now positive towards gold. Many analysts believe that we are already at the bottom of this cycle for gold, and they believe that gold prices will pull up from here in the next 6 months.
Reasons being-

Trade War- the US and China imposed import tariffs on each other, fraying nerves on financial markets. A further escalation in the trade war crisis will definitely push up gold prices.

Demand- After a slow season in Mat, gold is all set to run higher during the coming 6 months over rise in its demand.

The above chart shows what happened towards the end of each of the past five years, as Chinese and Indians loaded up on gold for Spring/Summer wedding gifts and as savings for post-harvest cash. There’s no reason to expect them behave differently next time around.

Dollar dependency-  the analyst are convinced that gold will continue to grow in value relative to currencies, particularly as more states seek to rid themselves of their dollar holdings.

Gold Holdings- According to the latest estimates, Russia and China are in 5th and 6th place in total gold holdings, respectively.  The US is estimated to have over 8,100 tons of gold. Germany, which recently repatriated its gold from the US, is in second place, with 3,371 tons; Italy is in third with 2,452 tons, and France in fourth with 2,436 tons. Moscow's historical record in total gold reserves was reached in 1941, when the USSR stockpiled some 2,800 tons of gold just before the start of the Second World War.

Looking at the above mentioned events, we think that gold is expected to bounce back from its year lows and wil head positive towards the year end.

3 types of rates influencing gold

Gold lost its luster this week, as it touched to one year lows. Spot gold, which is down over 6 percent this year, is close to a one-year low of $1,211.08 touched on July 19 as the dollar powered to a one-year high on expectations of higher U.S interest rates this year.

Gold prices dropped as trade tensions between the U.S. and China resurfaced a day after the Federal Reserve affirmed its intention to lift rates further in 2018.

Gold prices declined as US Treasury bond yields advanced alongside the US Dollar in anticipation of a hawkish Fed monetary policy announcement, sapping the appeal of non-interest-bearing alternatives. Crude oil prices likewise fell as the stronger greenback applied de-facto pressure on assets quoted in terms of the benchmark currency .

The Fed on Wednesday upgraded its assessment of the U.S. economy and hinted at another interest-rate hike as soon as September.

Rising trade animosities between Washington and Beijing were in focus on Wall Street, as the Trump administration threatened to more than double proposed duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25%, up from an original 10%.

Interest rate hike and escalating trade tensions are giving the U.S. dollar more buoyancy in recent trade, weighing on commodities pegged to the currency.

That has weighed on global stock markets but has provided the U.S. dollar a lift, as global trade tensions have recently flared up.

Rates remained unchanged as widely predicted, the statement released following the meeting of the policy-setting FOMC committee sounded decidedly confident on growth and inflation prospects. That bolstered the probability of a fourth rate hike in 2018 to 58.8 percent, up from 56.5 percent recorded a week earlier.

Investors betting on a stronger U.S economy and higher interest rates have sought out the dollar, sapping any benefits gold and other so-called “safe havens” might have gained from global trade tensions between the world’s largest economies.

Some analysts and fund managers say the dollar has benefited because the U.S. economy would be more resilient in the face of a trade war.

Gold is now fighting varied types of rate. One side it’s the interest rate from the Fed, on the other side it’s the import rates and thirdly the Bank of England rates too. Now all these clubbed together will life gold prices or pull it down- we don’t know- but these combined will definitely influence gold prices significantly.