Time and again, gold has been considered as a safe haven asset. In recent times, gold did deviate from this notion in March, as its prices fell following a crash in global stock markets.
This deviation underlines the uncertainty that gripped investors that month, with some gold owners presumably selling bullion to cover losses or to increase cash holdings.
But the past 3-4 months, have brought a significant rally in gold prices. Though gold witnessed a few dips, but it managed to bounce back.
Last Friday, gold closed at $1,938 per ounce, up $14 for the week on excellent volume, considering it was a holiday week. During the trading week, gold showed excellent stability, closing the four days trading within a $20 range from high to low.
After reaching an all-time high of $2,070 on August 7th and seeing a selloff (profit taking) on August 12th, taking the price down to $1,870, we are now seeing base building.
Last week gold had weakened over news of renewed vaccine. This hope triggered a strong DOW Fut at +285 and whole Asian markets mood lifted owing to that. The Oxford and Astrazencia vaccine trial resumed, but the number of patients across U.S, India, France and Brazil continued to rise. Some worrisome news came from France where initial talks of 1 week shut-down were under consideration. Moreover, Israel will also be doing it shortly. So, these are new dangers for the global post-Covid growth that is being factored by the markets.
Gold rose to its highest in nearly two weeks on Tuesday, propelled by a softer dollar and expectation that the US Federal Reserve will reinforce its accommodative monetary policy.
Spot gold rose 0.6% to $1,968.94 per ounce on Tuesday, having earlier climbed to $1,971.71, its highest since Sept. 2.
Once again gold was riding high over bullish sentiments. In the past five sessions, gold had four positive closes and it continued to rally on Tuesday morning.
Gold (XAU/USD) built on Monday’s 1% rally after a steady start on Tuesday, reaching fresh nine-day highs at $1967.
The main highlight in the past few days were-
• an improvement in the risk-sentiment
• courtesy of the vaccine hopes
• upbeat Chinese data
• renewed US-Sino trade optimism
A good sign in the ongoing global crisis were the Chinese activity numbers that came in stronger than the estimates, suggesting the economic recovery is gathering steam. China’s industrial production in August was up 5.6%, year-on-year, and up 1.0% from July. Meantime, U.S. industrial production rose 0.4% in August from July, failing to meet expectations for a 1.0% rise in the period. However, July industrial production was revised up 0.5%, to a 3.5% rise from June. Also, news that China extended tariffs exemptions on some of the US good imports further fuelled the market optimism.
But markets were more focussed on the events lined up this week.
Gold futures on Tuesday headed higher and aimed for a second straight gain as investors awaited dovish statements from global central banks that are likely to support bullion buying in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.
There are going to be important policy decisions from major institutions- The Federal Reserve, Bank of England followed by Bank of Japan.
Bullion dealers across India and around the world as well as investors are expecting policy makers to promote a regime of low interest rates for a prolonged period to combat COVID-19, which could lift both gold and stocks further, commodity analysts forecast.
Given the current situation, central banks are expected to convey a dovish message to the markets which would further result on higher gold prices.
Prithviraj Kothari of RSBL suggests that market participants now await the U.S. Fed’s two-day policy event which ends on Wednesday, its first such meeting since Chairman Jerome Powell unveiled a policy shift towards greater tolerance of inflation, effectively pledging to keep interest rates low for longer.
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