Gold has grown by more than 35% in 2020, thus exceeding the growth in 2019 when gold was up 18 percent. Wells Fargo analysts called the precious metal a ‘chameleon’ as the causes for its accumulation by investors have developed and changed in recent years. “From 2016 to 2019, gold tracked closely with falling global long-term interest rates. Then in early 2020, gold’s rally attached itself to coronavirus fears and excessive global money printing,” they said in their note.
Gold keeps moving away from the dollar, which, on the contrary, has gone down this year. The US dollar dropped due to the US government bonds that kept falling to new lows. According to Golden Brokers, the expected additional incentive measures for the pandemic global economy support this decline. ING confirms the connection between this trend and the growth of gold as well. “As low rates and a weaker dollar are likely to persist we are convinced that gold prices will continue to go up,” said Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy at ING.
At present, gold is traded at approximately USD 2,050 per ounce due to dollar weakening and concerns about the macroeconomic uncertainty and inflation, which stir up market participant’s interest in the yellow metal. In general, gold is considered to be security against accelerated price increases. The key growth factor was that outlooks for additional fiscal incentives pushed gold up. Democrats and Republicans seem to come closer to an agreement on a new spending bill. It is definitely a part of the equation. Enthusiasm for the metal and the related price growth are supported by some investors who are concerned that extraordinary steps taken by central banks mitigating the economic impact of the coronavirus might ultimately give rise to long-term inflationary pressures, i.e. currency depreciation.
If the recent allocation of resources due to money printing keeps recurring, the growth dynamics of gold may not change in the near future, think analysts at Golden Brokers. Some experts assume that the psychological limit has been broken by crossing the USD 2,000 level. However, there are opinions that we could see gold going as high as USD 15,000 per ounce in the following five years (Jim Rickards).