Hedge funds slash bullish wagers on gold over Trump election win
The precious metal has fallen about 8% from a record high on Oct. 31, with losses accelerating after Trump’s election victory last week.
Comex gold and silver futures prices made strong gains in morning trade Monday, with the February gold contract powering to a six week high of $1,679.50 an ounce, up just shy of 1% by midday.
Gold is now up over 5% for the year, but still well of the record high above $1,900 hit in September.
The precious metal extended gains made last week which traders say is thanks to a fears about the European debt crisis subsiding somewhat and renewed optimism that China’s slowdown won’t result in a hard landing.
Reuters quotes Akira Doi, a vice-president at brokerage Daiichi in Tokyo:
“A disaster in the euro zone would not necessarily spark gold buying as even gold would be seen as a risk and investors would likely be prompted to sell, while geopolitical risk such as tension surrounding Iran would boost the safe-haven appetite for gold.”
BullionVault quotes from a research note by Scotia Mocatta:
“Near term technical have turned more bullish [for gold],” says the latest technical analysis from Scotia Mocatta, though it sees “psychological resistance looming at $1700.”
March silver tracked gold higher, it was up 2.15% adding 68 cents, to $32.36 an ounce. March copper gained 5 cents, or 1.4%, to change hands at $3.80 per pound. Silver added 3.8% on Friday.
MINING.com reported earlier this month 80% of gold company executives expect gold to continue rising in 2012 and a majority says it will peak at $2,000, according to the results of a new survey by PwC that surveyed companies representing 26.5 million ounces of gold mined in 2011, and 37.75 million ounces to be mined in 2012.
Comments
Nicholas
Same old story, lets move on to rare earths and graphite.