Gold futures bullish sentiment result in the largest daily gain since October 2023

Gold futures bullish sentiment result in the largest daily gain since October 2023 teaser image

Exceptional, phenomenal, amazing, surprising, astounding, and almost beyond belief are only a few of the many words that can be used to describe today’s exceedingly strong upside breakout in gold futures. Gold opened today at $2052.82 and by the close of Globex at 5:00 PM ET gold futures are up $41. At the close, the most active April gold futures contract is trading at $2095.70, a 2% daily gain.

Now that gold futures have concluded for the week and the first trading day of March, the only regular break to gold’s 24-hour trading day (excluding holidays) market participants, investors, and traders are all beginning to have a more comprehensive understanding and explanation as to why gold moved 2% in a single day. The difficulty here is that there was no unexpected fundamental report or event that led to such a tremendous price gain in a single day.

There was no single news event, expected data report, or even a black swan event (an unpredictable or unforeseen event, typically one with extreme consequences) that could simply answer this question. What we do know is this large of a move does not occur frequently.

Today’s gains were the largest daily gain since Friday, October 13. On that day gold futures opened at $1921.70 and closed at $1983.80 and gained approximately $62 in a single day.

So what we must assume is there is a high probability that today’s spike was caused by events that occurred recently that are just beginning to get digested and interpreted in a new light or different way. The one big similarity to last week’s trading range is that Friday’s gain contained the vast majority of the weekly gain. On a weekly basis, gold gained $46.30 which is a 2.26% gain on the week, of which 2% of that gain occurred today. Last week gold gained $25.30 which is a 1.25% gain on the week, of which $18.70 or 92.1% of the gain occurred last Friday, February 23.

However, that fact delivers very little insight if any at all as to why gold had the single largest daily gain in the last five months.

The chart above is a five-minute Japanese candlestick chart of April gold futures. The first blue arrow on the left marks the beginning of the trading day with gold opening at $2052.82. Approximately 3 ½ hours later gold would trade to its low of approximately $2047 and begin the first leg of two rallies that would take gold dramatically higher. Gold would trade from $2047 up to $2066 in just over two hours before trading to another low of $2051, which was above the daily low and was a precursor to the dramatic second leg of the rally which took gold from $2051 to its high above $2096 before trading sideways are consolidating and currently at $2091.60 its settlement price for the week.

The next chart we want to look at is a five-minute candlestick chart of the dollar index which traded to a high today of 104.324, a low of 103.859, and settled down 0.24% at 103.904. The dollar traded with some volatility today, compared to what was witnessed in gold futures.

The chart above is a daily candlestick chart of gold which shows the incredibly large and dynamic price spike in one single candlestick which more than anything else clearly illustrates the importance and magnitude of today’s single move. All we can say is that most likely it was a combination of many events in which market sentiment shifted. The first and most obvious one to look at would be a renewed belief that the Federal Reserve will cut rates sooner than expected.

This could stem from the latest inflation report coming in close to the anticipated target. But luckily we have the weekend to aggressively analyze and dissect today’s rally so that on Monday we can bring you a more concise attempted understanding of today’s move.

Kitco Media

Gary Wagner

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley

Fed hikes may have concluded, as central banks purchase gold at a record level

Gold had tremendously strong gains today of just over $20 per ounce in both physical gold as well as futures. As of 4:00 PM EST gold futures basis the December contract is currently up $20.80 or + 1.05%, and fixed at $2001. On its first day as the most active Comex contract, February gold (GC G24) gained $20.60 or + 1.03% and is currently fixed at $2021.10. Physical or spot gold is up $20.80 trading at $1998.40.

Today’s solid gains are the result of multiple factors. First, the release of economic reports indicates that the economy in the United States has been contracting as a result of recent rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Secondly, the Federal Reserve released its minutes from the last FOMC meeting in which the Fed continued to maintain its current interest rate level.

Third, a report by the World Gold Council revealed intensified buying by central banks around the world resulting in a new record for purchases in the first nine months of the year. Lastly, except for the Federal Reserve, global central banks are beginning to cut interest rates.

It was a combination of all the events cited above that propelled gold futures above $2000 per ounce.

The World Gold Council has updated its list of gold reserves by countries revealing that many central banks aggressively added to their gold reserves. Collectively these purchases by global central banks are at a record pace for the first three quarters of 2023 which totals 800 tons, with China Poland, and Singapore being the primary buyers. This pace is well above the total purchases for the same period in 2022.

Will the Fed follow the pack and cut rates sooner than anticipated?

Today the Federal Reserve released its minutes for the most recent FOMC meeting. The minutes supported current expectations that the Federal Reserve’s pause not only will continue, but more importantly signals that the Fed might have concluded its aggressive interest rate hikes that began in March 2022. These hikes have effectively raised the Fed funds rate from between 0 and ¼% to between 5 ¼% and 5 ½%. Expectations by the CME’s FedWatch tool indicate the probability of a rate hike pause is 94.8% down from the probability of 99.8% a week ago.

Adding to these bullish developments that took gold futures above $2000 per ounce is the fact that multiple central banks have begun interest rate cuts.

In fact, for the first time since January 2021, the number of central banks that are cutting interest rates is greater than the number of central banks implementing rate hikes.

While the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy has not mentioned any imminent rate cuts the fact that many other central banks are cutting rates is positive. Although the ECB has not begun to cut its interest rate level, expectations are high that they have ended their cycle of rate hikes and could begin rate cuts as early as the second quarter of 2024.

Gary S. Wagner

By

Gary Wagner

Contributing to kitco.com

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley

Analysts expect gold to kick off Q4 with gains, while retail investors are evenly split

Gold prices underwent a dramatic selloff this week, continuing and accelerating the downtrend that began after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on the 20th and reiterated that rates would remain higher for longer than previously anticipated.

The latest Kitco News Weekly Gold Survey sees most market analysts optimistic that gold will see a bounce in the near term, while retail investors are more evenly divided after experiencing seven straight sessions of losses.

Everett Millman, Chief Market Analyst at Gainesville Coins, attributed gold's recent slide largely to seasonal factors and options contracts expiring, and sees the precious metal rebounding to start the fourth quarter.

"My initial reaction to the downturn this week was that it had a lot to do with the options expiry on Comex, which does usually lead to a lot of downside volatility as people are closing out or rolling over contracts," he said. "But given that this price action continued throughout the rest of the week, I'm also going to attribute that a bit to seasonality. The gold market usually goes into a slumber in the late summer, early autumn months. We saw that exact same pattern last year. Unless markets are interpreting the FOMC to be extremely hawkish, which I don't think is what's going on, I think you have to chalk it up to seasonality and just the regular trading dynamics that come at this time of year."

"Usually October, the beginning of the fourth quarter, is when you see the tide turn the opposite direction," Millman said. "It's when we get a lot of gold buying events out East, in both India and China. India has the Diwali festival coming up in early November, a lot of buyers over there start accumulating gold in the weeks preceding that."

"I would expect to see gold, if not at the beginning of October, certainly by the beginning of November, to see prices on the rise again."

James Stanley, senior market strategist at Forex.com, believes gold could fall further in the first week of October. "The rates theme has markets on edge and gold's behavior since FOMC has been aggressively bearish with both spot and futures taking out a number of supports along the way," Stanley said. "There's no evidence that's finished yet."

This week, 13 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Seven experts, or 54%, expected to see higher gold prices next week, while four analysts, or 31%, predicted a drop in price. Only two analysts, or 15%, were neutral on gold for the coming week.

Meanwhile, 540 votes were cast in online polls. Of these, 245 retail investors, or 45%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 219, or 41%, expected it would be lower, while 76 respondents, or 14%, were neutral about the near-term prospects for the precious metal.

Kitco Gold Survey

Wall Street

Bullish54%

Bearish31%

Neutral15%

VS

Main Street

Bullish45%

Bearish41%

Neutral14%

The latest survey shows that retail investors expect gold to trade around $1,872 per ounce next week, which is $64 below last week's prediction, but which would still represent a gain of $23 from the current spot price.

The coming week will see the release of the ISM Manufacturing and Services PMIs for September along with over a dozen speeches by U.S. and European central bankers, including Fed chair Jerome Powell and ECB president Christine Lagarde. The highlight of the week will be the Nonfarm Payrolls report for September, which is slated for release on Friday morning, but which could be canceled if the U.S. government shuts down.

Mark Leibovit, publisher of the VR Metals/Resource Letter, sees gold prices rising next week as the greenback pulls back. "Bullish, as it appears the U.S. dollar may be forming a trading top," he said.

Darin Newsom, Senior Market Analyst at Barchart.com, shared a technical case in favor of gold gaining ground next week.

"While the long-term trend and intermediate-term trends remain down, Dec gold's short-term daily chart is showing the contract to be sharply oversold," Newsom said. "Daily stochastics established a bullish crossover below 20% at Thursday's close, a signal the short-term trend is set to turn up. It's possible, maybe not probable, Dec23 completes a bullish 2-day reversal Friday. To do so, it would need to rally and close near the daily high. If that doesn't happen, a bullish reversal pattern will be delayed for a bit."

Marc Chandler, Managing Director at Bannockburn Global Forex, also sees upside potential for gold as the fourth quarter gets underway. "I look for gold to bottom shortly," Chandler said. "Soft US core inflation helping US rates stabilize and the dollar's pullback should help the yellow metal. Month-end and quarter-end flows may be distorting the immediate picture, but the headwinds on the US economy look set to intensify: tightening of credit, the cumulative effect of rising rates, deposits still leaving banks, the resumption of student debt servicing, the likely partial closure of the US federal government, and the high energy price may sap the strength of the US economy."

Looking at the technical picture, Chandler said, "I would be inclined to buy gold on further weakness and look for a move to $1885 to stabilize the technical tone and a move $1892 to boost confidence a low is in place."

"Funds are still holding a net-long futures position, not changing it much over the course of September," Newsom noted, "so with the end of the quarter in sight, it could lead to some long-liquidation."

Adam Button, Chief Currency Analyst at Forexlive.com, still believes bonds and the U.S. dollar will dictate the precious metal's trajectory in the near term, but he sees a silver lining to gold's recent weakness.

"There's a wonderful seasonal gold trade that kicks off in November, and this is setting up very nicely for a test of $1800, and then strength November through January," Button said. "Obviously the bonds are the catalyst here. Right now, you can buy a three-month T-bill, five and a half percent, 10-years, four and a half percent, and gold still yielding zero. The yield difference between gold and other traditional safe havens is painful at the moment, especially in an environment with a rising dollar."

He said gold bulls believed the Fed would be signaling an end to rate hikes by this point. "Instead, there was talk this week about extending the hiking cycle into 2024, Kashkari was a pretty big catalyst saying that, a 40 percent chance that they have to keep hiking, perhaps significantly, in 2024."

Button believes gold will need to see weakness in U.S. economic data before any kind of sustained rally. "I suspect it's coming, but we may not be getting any economic data starting next week if the shutdown happens, at least not the top tier data," he said. "That stokes some economic weakness later. But now, say the shutdown last two weeks in October, then can you really trust the October data? Because it's all going to be skewed. I don't know… I think the market will probably figure out whether it's real or fake weakness, but it might look like weakness at least, which should be bullish for gold."

Button also agreed that quarter-end factors were in play this week, and he thinks there's a decent chance gold sees a bounce early next week. The price action today isn't particularly promising, but the day's not over," he said. "I don't have a huge amount of confidence we'll get a big bounce, but I'd say I'm neutral for next week."

And Kitco Senior Analyst Jim Wyckoff sees downside risks for the precious metal. "Steady-lower. Technicals bearish," Wyckoff said. "That means the path of least resistance for prices remains sideways to lower."

Gold prices are currently down 0.84% on the day and 4% on the week, with spot gold last trading near session lows at $1,849.09 an ounce at the time of writing.

By

Ernest Hoffman

For Kitco News

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley