Gold price firms in holiday-thinned trade, spotlight on Fed and Trump policies
The yellow metal has gained 27% so far this year.
Gold bulls are out of the barn today and they are all about good news.
According to Bloomberg, McEwen Mining CEO Robert McEwen said at a recent conference in Colorado Springs that the metal could trade in a range of $1,700 an ounce to $1,900 by the end of the year.
After three consecutive annual losses, gold prices have risen 24% this year. Spot gold was Wednesday 0.87% at $1,326.10 an ounce at 13:05 ET, while U.S. gold futures climbed 0.88% to $1,329.8 an ounce.
McEwen attaches the uptrend to record-low global interest rates and the uncertainty around both the U.S. election and the stability of global currencies and sovereign debt. He says that investors will get so anxious that they will turn to gold as a store of value and an alternative asset.
A very much expected Federal Reserve decision has traders predicting an interest-rate hike at only 22%.
Meanwhile, McEwen even thinks bullion could reach $5,000 in four years.
Similarly, Old Mutual Global Investors’ managing director of commodities Diego Parrilla told Bloomberg that the yellow metal is at the start of a multi-year bull run. On top of low-interest rates, Parrilla says investors’ nerves are also being shaken by what he calls a “monetary policy without limits” that has central banks printing lots of money.
The Bank of Japan, for example, removed all time limits on its QE money-creation scheme on Wednesday and vowed to push inflation above its 2.0% target.
In this scenario, the Old Mutual Global Investors exec anticipates that gold will continue to perform strongly, as other asset classes lose value.
Even though he didn’t give a specific figure, Parrilla’s forecast matches that of Rosland Capital’s Jeffrey Nichols. A month ago, the firm’s economic advisor explained to MINING.com that gold has been trading “inversely to equities – and, consequently, the yellow metal stands to gain much when Wall Street tumbles.”
Nichols also foresees a boom market in the coming years, although he is a bit more cautious in his estimates. He says that $1,400 an ounce by the end of 2016 would be a reasonable price.
