The uptrend has once again moved into gold’s life. Gold leaped towards $1365 and the highs of almost a year ago. From the last two quarters of 2018 till date, gold has been climbing up the staircase, leaping higher, then consolidating and then moving up once more.
The middle two quarters of 2018 were bad for gold because the dollar was extraordinarily strong, so was the domestic equity market in the U.S. The influence of all that tended to wane in December, so gold picked up very, very nicely
A weaker U.S. dollar pushed gold up to 10-month highs on Tuesday, with April gold futures last trading at $1,339.70 an ounce, up 1.32% on the day.
With both the dollar and yen sliding, most notably after the BOJ’s Kuroda told parliament the Japanese central bank can and will ease far more if necessary, it is perhaps not surprising that gold has surged higher, rising above $1,341/ounce, up over $140 from the early November levels when it was trading in the low-$1,200s, and the highest price since April 2018.
The recent rise in gold prices reflects solid demand from investors and, given that there is a relatively thin supply pipeline of metal between miner, refiner and trader, this is leading to a shortage of physical gold. Gold demand rose in 2018 and, although the US dollar gold price was down 1% over the year, it outperformed many other financial assets. Worries about a slowdown in global growth, heightened geopolitical tensions, and financial market volatility saw central bank demand hit its highest level since.
It is a matter of some speculation, but this story echoes reports that physical gold demand by Central Banks are at the highest since 1967, while institutional gold ETF off take hit an unprecedented 145 tonnes in December and January
Central banks added 651.5t to official gold reserves in 2018, up 74% on 2017 and the second highest yearly total on record. Net purchases jumped to their highest level since the end of US dollar convertibility into gold in 1971, as a greater pool of central banks turned to gold as a diversifier.
Most people are expecting gold to do well this year as gold has restored everyone’s faith in the market.