Gold shines amid geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty

Gold, the precious metal long revered as a safe-haven asset, experienced a respectable price increase on Friday, fueled by a confluence of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties. As of 5:25 PM EDT, gold futures based on the most active June 2024 contract settled at $2,413.80, after factoring gains of $15.80, or 0.66%. Similarly, spot gold rose to $2,391.77, up $13.01, or 0.55%, reflecting the metal's allure in times of turmoil.

One of the primary catalysts for gold's ascent was the heightened concern over a potential escalation between Israel and Iran. Reports emerged earlier in the day that Israel had launched missile strikes on Iran, immediately fueling fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East. This development sent shockwaves through the markets, prompting investors to seek refuge in the safe-haven properties of gold.

However, as the day progressed, the magnitude of the Israeli attack was clarified, with sources indicating that it was a limited-scale operation targeting Iranian facilities, leaving the country's nuclearinstallations unscathed. Additionally, Iranian officials stated that there were no plans to retaliate against Israel for the incident, easing some of the initial tensions.

Despite the de-escalation of the Middle East conflict, gold's upward trajectory remained intact, supported by a confluence of other factors. The U.S. dollar's weakness played a minor role, with the dollar index closing down 0.02% at 105.96, making gold more affordable for holders of other currencies.

On the economic front, investors were faced with a mixed bag of data and signals. Strong economic indicators, including robust retail sales, an encouraging Philadelphia manufacturing PMI, and hawkish statements from Federal Reserve officials, suggested a resilient U.S. economy. This, in turn, fueled speculation that the central bank might maintain its current restrictive monetary policy, keeping benchmark interest rates between 5.25% and 5.5% to combat persistent inflation.

The combination of geopolitical uncertainties and economic ambiguities contributed to a selloff in U.S. equities, with the NASDAQ Composite declining by 2%, the S&P 500 dropping 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.6%.

Market participants eagerly await the release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data next Friday, which will provide crucial insights into the most recent inflationary trends and potentially influence the Federal Reserve's future policy decisions.

As the global economic landscape continues to evolve and geopolitical tensions ebb and flow, gold's allure as a safe haven remains steadfast, attracting investors seeking stability amidst uncertainty.

Gary S. Wagner

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley

Gold pauses as marketplace remains pensive

Gold prices are modestly lower and have traded both sides of unchanged, while silver prices are higher in U.S. trading Wednesday. Both markets are in a pause mode as tentative traders and investors ponder the next

development in the volatile Middle East. June gold was last down $6.50 at

$2,401.70. May silver was last up $0.249 at $28.635.

The heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East—namely the Iran#Israel hostilities—have taken center stage in the general marketplace. Traders and investors have temporarily pushed supply and demand and economic fundamentals to the back burner and are keenly focused on the next shoe to drop in the Israel-Iran military confrontation. Such is evidenced by gold and silver markets rallying on safe-haven buying recently, despite normally bearish fundamentals at present that include rising U.S. Treasury yields, a rallying U.S. dollar index and a hawkish#leaning Federal Reserve.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in remarks on Tuesday afternoon cast a hawkish tone on U.S. monetary policy. He said U.S. inflation persists, calling into question whether the Fed can cut interest rates this year. He suggested interest rates may have to remain higher for longer, to get inflation back down to a level where the Fed feels more comfortable. U.S. Treasury yields rose to five-month highs after Powell’s comments. Powell’s hawkish lean is a bearish element for the precious metals markets. However, at present, heightened geopolitics are trumping economic fundamentals.

In other news, broker SP Angel reported overnight that metals analysts say central banks are buying around 25% of annual gold production–the highest level since the early 1970s when the Bretton Woods accord unraveled.

The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index slightly lower on a corrective pullback after hitting a 5.5-month high on Tuesday. Nymex crude oil prices are weaker and trading around $84.50 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently fetching around

4.6%.

Technically, June gold futures bulls have the strong overall near-term

technical advantage. A two-month-old uptrend is in place on the daily bar

chart. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above

solid resistance at $2,500.00. Bears' next near-term downside price

objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at

$2,300.00. First resistance is seen at $2,425.00 and then at the contract

high of $2,448.80. First support is seen at today’s low of $2,389.00 and

then at Tuesday’s low of $2,379.20. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 9.0

May silver futures bulls have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. A two-month-old price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls' next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $30.00. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $26.00. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of $29.10 and then at $29.50. Next support is seen at $28.00 and then at this week’s low of $27.665. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 8.5.

May N.Y. copper closed up 670 points at 437.05 cents today. Prices closed nearer the session high. The copper bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a two-month-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Copper bulls' next upside price objective is pushing and closing prices above solid technical resistance at 450.00 cents. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at 415.00 cents. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of 439.65 cents and then at 445.00 cents. First support is seen at this week’s low of 427.05 cents and then at 420.00 cents. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 8.0.

Kitco Media

Jim Wyckoff

Tim Moseley

Gold price action driven by conflicting cyclical and structural forces, traditional metrics aren’t working – Analysts

As gold prices continue to hit record highs, experts at leading banks are updating their forecasts for the precious metal even as they try to determine where the price action is likely to head.

Francisco Blanch, Head of Commodities and Derivatives Research at Bank of America Securities, told Yahoo Finance that the gold market is caught in a daily tug-of-war between powerful cyclical and structural forces.

“We've seen tremendous gold buying on the back of central banks, and more recently there's been retail gold buying in China, but I think we have to distinguish the kind of temporary cyclical rate factors driving gold here from what's more structural,” Blanch said. “In the case of gold, I think there's a really big structural trend towards more gold purchases driven by the major geopolitical fracture that we have in the world today between the U.S. and Europe on one side, and Russia China on the other. It's really been central banks not trusting central banks that has been behind the buy-the-dip mentality in the gold market.”

Blanch said that this central bank-driven gold rally has made investors “maybe a little bit too excited,” and some of those longs are being liquidated following Wednesday’s higher-than-expected CPI report. “That's the story, inflation print hotter than expected, makes the Fed less likely to cut in June,” he said. “Why own gold? At this stage there are better alternatives for building higher returns. That's the battle that we are seeing every day.”

Blanch reiterated that Bank of America still expects three rate cuts in 2024, but gold prices could tumble if the Fed doesn’t deliver. “We are still calling for a rate cut in June, and two more in the second half of the year, so based on that, we think prices continue to go higher, but there is definitely a challenge for the gold market If the Fed doesn't cut rates this year, or as some people have claimed, if the Fed hikes rates.”

“I think it'll be pretty bad for the gold market and pretty bad for gold positioning.”

Blanch said shifting interest rate expectations are also impacting currencies, which are affecting gold prices in turn. “It's not just gold, it's also the fact that higher inflation in the U.S. leads to persistently higher interest rates, persistently higher, stronger dollar and therefore makes assets like gold less valuable,” he said. “There's a risk on that gold trade, and the risk is the Fed doesn't cut, or potentially hikes.”

He added that if things do get to the point where the Fed hikes rates further, he still expects central bank buying to prevent the gold price from collapsing. “I would expect central banks to come in and eventually put a floor on the market,” Blanch said. “Central banks are not going to be chasing the gold market higher, they're going to be buying on dips.”

HSBC Chief Commodities Analyst James Steel told Bloomberg Radio that the gold market's latest surge is being driven by geopolitical risks, as well as national and regional economic factors affecting the broader market.

“It's a default play,” Steel said. “In the case of China, specifically, the property market's been very weak, the equity markets have been very weak, and this narrows the universe that investors big and small are likely to look for. Gold is a great safe haven.”

Steel said that gold is also seeing interest in other countries, but the drivers are different. “Now we're seeing the same thing abroad, but the equity and property markets haven't fallen abroad,” he said. “In the case of Western markets, I think what we've seen is asset managers, portfolio managers and the like have recognized that equities are very high. They have no choice in many cases but to be in equity markets, but they have a choice how they hedge that exposure, and they've chosen gold.”

Asked how investors can properly value gold at these levels, and judge if and when it’s overvalued, Steel acknowledged that the traditional metrics are less useful than ever.

“I think that's a universal problem,” Steel said. “Cost of production won't help you at all because the market is well above the average, all-in sustaining costs of production, or any measure that you want to look at, with maybe except for one or two gold mines in the whole world.”

Steel said the traditional barometers that indicate when to buy or sell gold are also not working very well. “For example, we were looking for 150, 160 basis points [in Fed cuts]. When I say we, I mean Wall Street, in January,” he said. “That's contracted to below 75 basis points of cuts. That would normally have led you to think that gold would recalibrate lower between January and now, but the opposite has happened. Real rates are positive, that should be providing headwinds, and the dollar has been reasonably firm. None of those things seem to be making a huge impact.”

Steel emphasized that he believes the geopolitical elements are having a very strong effect on the gold market. “We've seen a lot of geopolitically-led safe-haven buying coming in, and there's academic studies to show that gold hedges well against geopolitical risk as well as it does against financial market risk.”

“Right now we are in a bit of a no-man's-land here, where the traditional issues would not provide you with the guidance that you would normally think,” he said. “Now, over time, physical demand outside of China is suffering. It was down last year in India. A ten-gram bar in India is now ₹71,000, double what it was just a few years ago. Jewelry demand is declining. Most people that want to buy coins have already done so. And I would suspect that if we get an equities correction, and I'm not saying that we will, that's well outside my pay grade, but that itself could bring an end to some of the safe-haven portfolio buying that's coming into gold.”

Gold prices are breaking out once again on Thursday afternoon, with spot gold setting a new all-time high of $2,371.13 per ounce at the time of writing.

Kitco Media

Ernest Hoffman

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley

ECB-Fed divergence and political upheaval could roil currencies and boost gold, analysts warn

The European Central Bank (ECB) will issue its interest rate decision on Thursday morning, and while markets are not predicting any change to the rate at the April meeting, expectations are ramping up for them to kick off the cutting cycle soon.

But across the pond in the United States, a stronger-than-expected economy coupled with higher-than-expected inflation readings are pushing the prospect of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve further into the future.

Could the world’s two most influential central banks be on the verge of a divergence in interest rate policy? And if so, what are the implications for the euro, the dollar, and gold?

Marc Chandler, Managing Director at Bannockburn Global Forex, said that after last week’s softer-than-expected Eurozone CPI data, market participants see only a 10% chance of a rate cut at Thursday’s ECB meeting, but they now feel fairly confident of a June rate cut. “It's nearly fully discounted for June,” he said.

By contrast, Chandler said things appear to be moving in the opposite direction in the United States. “The futures market has not only moved away from the June Fed cut, which is around 50 percent or so now, but they've also downgraded the chances of a July cut,” he said. “For the first time since October last year, the market's not pricing in at least 25 basis points by July.”

Adam Button, Head of Currency Strategy at Forexlive.com, believes the ECB and the Fed are in very different positions, as the former faces political pressures and a popular reckoning in the near term.

“It's that generational aversion to inflation, and I think it's that political anger too,” Button said. “We have it everywhere in the world, the political anger about inflation, and you don't want that to be redirected at you if you're the central bank. This is their job.”

“I think the ECB is likely to embark on a consistent rate-cutting cycle, where the Fed may just dip in its toes.”

Chandler said that in the near term, he wouldn’t characterize the ECB starting its easing as a divergence from the Fed, but more of a head start down the same path. “I don't know how much of it is divergence and how much of it is just sequencing,” he said, noting that FOMC members including Powell and the Fed’s latest dot plots all point to multiple rate cuts at some point this year. “We're talking about sequentially, that the ECB might cut rates say, one or two months before the Fed.”

Chandler said he believes this is one of the factors that has weighed on the euro against the U.S. dollar, though it has shown resilience. “The euro last month, as this was beginning to be discounted, held the February low, which is around 107,” he pointed out.

European, U.S. growth closer than appearances

But Chandler said he doesn’t think the United States’ stronger economic performance is really a case of U.S. exceptionalism. “I think that the stronger growth in the U.S. can be accounted for by a budget deficit that's roughly twice the level of the Eurozone,” he said. “And I think that Europe has also been hit still with the disruption of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and that has kept the energy prices in Europe higher than they are in the U.S. What we're seeing is the manufacturing sector in the Eurozone, especially in France and Germany, is still under pressure. The periphery, like Spain and Italy, ironically, are doing better.”

Button also sees much of the United States’ purported growth as a mirage. “They're running huge deficits,” he said. “That’s the big difference between Europe and the U.S. Europe isn't spending right now, the budget rules are pretty strict there, and the U.S. is spending massively. That might explain maybe half the difference in growth between Europe and the U.S.”

Chandler said that rising salaries in the United States, which are a problem in terms of inflation, are also a boon for growth data. “In the U.S., we've seen real wage increases, wages growing faster than inflation,” he said. “And that helps the consumer sector, which, as we know from recent data, including the Q4 data, continues to be a bright spot for the U.S. economy.”

Chandler pointed out that Fed Chair Jerome Powell frequently asserts that they need to see better inflation data to be more confident before cutting rates, and recent data is having the opposite effect. “The Fed says ‘we're data dependent,’ and the market takes a look at data and says, ‘Okay, it's going to take you a little bit longer to cut rates.’”

“Part of the problem is that the market's been talking about recessions for a couple of years now, and with the resilience of the U. S. economy, I think it's finally hitting them,” he said. “But to me, this is a contrarian indicator. Many economists have been talking about a recession for a couple of years, we don't get it, and now that the market capitulates and says, ‘Well, maybe the Fed's not going to have to cut rates as much as they thought,’ I think that's when the economy begins weakening.”

Chandler said that he expects Q1 growth to remain strong and noted that the Atlanta Fed GDP tracker is predicting a healthy 2. 8%, but that the coming months will bring the anticipated downturn on the back of “the accumulation of the financial tightening, the higher interest rates, the slowdown in credit extension, some deterioration below the surface in the full-time jobs group, for example.”

“What it really is, is a question of timing,” Chandler said. “Timing these things is very difficult, but getting the general direction, getting the pattern… I think the market once again postpones the downturn to the second half of the year.”
 

“One of the incredible things about the market is it’s an anticipatory mechanism,” he added. “Part of the reason why the euro is still under pressure is that the market's pricing exactly that scenario in.”

Button said the central banks’ policies could still look similar in the near term, but things are set to change in the coming years. “Say the Fed cuts 50 or 75 and ECB maybe about that,” he said. “It's in 2025 when the ECB will have that latitude to keep on cutting rates and the Fed might not. I think that's when you see that divergence open up. 2026 is when the U.S. really starts to stumble because that's when the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] and the [CHIPS and Science Act] run out.”

But in the near term, if the ECB eases before the Fed, it could have real implications for their respective currencies, and for gold.

Chandler said that while much of the euro’s expected weakening in this scenario is priced in, there’s still a late move from the broader public. “There's a difference between institutional and retail investors,” he said. “I think oftentimes retail investors have other things on their plate, they're working, they've got family, and they wait for the news to come out. The news says ‘ECB cut rates, the Fed is not going to.’ And then they might decide to sell the euro. Meanwhile, institutional investors are anticipating these things. They're looking at the same things we are, like the swaps market, the futures market.”

Chandler said this can be clearly seen in the difference between the two-year yields on both sides of the pond. “The U.S. premium fell to about 165 basis points over Germany back in January, now it's at 190 basis points,” he said. “I think that's what's weighing on the euro.”

“What happens then is, say we get to June, the ECB cuts, the Fed doesn't and some traders, especially retail investors, say ‘oh, this is a policy divergence’ and they sell the euro. Meanwhile, the institutional investors which are already short the euro, buy it back because they think, now that the ECB has cut, what's the next move? The next move is going to be the Fed cut.”

Will Europeans get into gold?

Button also believes that the euro will come under pressure in the near term. “The question is whether Europeans turn to gold as a store of value,” he said. “At the margins, I think that could happen. This year, gold looks great in euros, and it's certainly not loved right now, so there is room for money to flow into gold there. But then you can also argue that if the dollar strengthens, a strong dollar isn't always great for gold.”

Still, he expects that if the broader European public finds itself “gripped by the feeling of a falling currency,” this would be “a natural driver” for gold. “I assume that 90, 95 percent of those real money flows go into other currencies, but that five percent is significant in a market like gold,” Button said. “Right now, gold is positioning itself as strong and I think that has a long way to run. The more good days that gold has, it's a snowball running downhill.”

“In all markets right now, the winners keep on winning and we’re in the most liquid time in history, the easiest time to trade in history,” he added. “So long as gold continues to rise, the money will find its way into gold. When Europe weakens, people look at gold. Maybe it's hard to buy the all-time highs. But since we broke out about $2100, what's the biggest dip? 30, 40 dollars? I think that's the best you're going to get.”

For his part, Chandler doesn’t see much chance of European investors piling into gold the way many Asian investors have, because the dynamics are very different.

“I was just looking at European bank shares, and they're doing great,” he said. “Japanese banks have done fairly well too, especially now that [the Bank of Japan] has raised interest rates. I think that for the same reasons that Americans don't own a lot of gold, I don't really expect Europe to buy a lot of gold.”

“I'm not sure that a rate cut from the ECB is a key catalyst,” he added. “I think that gold might rally, but I think gold's already rallying.”

Looking further out, Button does expect U.S. investors to pile into gold eventually, but when they do, it will be more of a greed trade than a fear trade.

“That's the exorbitant privilege of the U.S. dollar, is that Americans don't think about moving money into euros,” he said. “The Europeans do fret about the euro and fret about currencies. They have a long memory of domestic currency weakness, so they look for alternatives in the FX and the gold space, maybe crypto, when that weakness starts, whereas Americans are more inclined to look to gold.”

“When the dollar does eventually turn, Americans are buying.”

Button said that what needs to happen in the United States is for gold to capture the imagination of investors. “Once a market grabs the attention of the investing community right now, the moves can be phenomenal,” he said. “In a way, gold has already made an incredible move, but it hasn't quite got the attention yet. If gold and precious metals can recapture investor imagination like they did in the early 2000s, then you can't overstate the upside.”

“There's so much more money in capital markets than there was 15 years ago when that big gold bull market happened,” Button added. “Layer on leverage and options, and I think there's an opportunity to dream big. I don't know if it's the Fed cutting that kicks that off, or Asia, but I think price is the only thing that really matters and there's no need to risk overthinking it.”

Button pointed out that the environment of the past year has been terrible for gold, with high rates, every other market doing well, and crypto taking off. “And yet gold is at record highs,” he said. “I look at gold as a market that's taken the fundamentals’ worst punch.”

Continental shift could shake markets

Chandler said that the other major driver behind a potential divergence between the United States and Europe is the tectonic shift in the latter’s political landscape, which creates risks for currencies and commodities like gold. “There are European parliamentary elections in June,” he said. “And these polls show the current leadership in France and Germany with very low levels of support, which warns of a shift to the right.”

Button agreed that politics is the wild card on the continent, and it’s likely to impact markets in unforeseen ways. “Political changes is coming, and that could be the trigger for some kind of fear, uncertainty trade,” he said. “There was a brief period around COVID where the ideological cohesion in Europe was unprecedented. That fragmented quickly, and it will continue to fragment, I'm sure of it.”

“That is probably your best case for gold buying in Europe, and it's a pretty strong one,” Button said. “That's where I’d be watching, because I don't know if there's an incumbent party in Europe that's safe right now.”

“It won't surprise me to see further gains in gold,” said Chandler. “I'm not sure that the Chinese situation changes very much. I'm not sure the Turkish situation changes very much. For me, it's a really a story of what's going to change those forces. And I don't I don't see that on the horizon.”

Kitco Media

Ernest Hoffman

Time to Buy Gold and Silver

Tim Moseley