Wall Street goes full bull on gold price after post-hike gains, Main Street bolsters bullish majority as gold holds $4,300

Gold prices rebounded during a wild week, as an early selloff driven by surging oil prices, near-5% Treasury yields, and expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike gave way to a sharp recovery after the hike was delivered and oil and yield pressure eased. Spot gold kicked off the week trading at $4,340 per ounce on Sunday evening, and that yellow metal quickly came under pressure as traders priced in stronger inflation risks from higher crude prices and renewed U.S.-Iran tensions. The selling accelerated through Monday and Tuesday, with gold dropping to a more than one-month low near $4,279.30 per ounce on Tuesday as markets treated this week’s Fed hike as increasingly locked in. Gold attempted to stabilize Wednesday ahead of the Fed decision, but the rebound failed after the FOMC voted 12-0 to raise rates by 25 basis points to a 3.75% to 4.00% target range, while the updated projections showed 16 of 18 policymakers still expected another hike before year-end. Spot gold fell back after the announcement and set its weekly low near $4,261.80 per ounce on Wednesday afternoon. The yellow metal recovered Thursday as lower crude oil prices, a softer U.S. dollar, and easing Treasury yields helped traders unwind some of the post-Fed pressure. Friday saw the rally extended as oil prices fell for a third straight session and yields moved back from the week’s highs, allowing gold to climb to its weekly high of $4,400.60 per ounce. After pulling back from this intraday high, spot gold eased into the weekend trading near $4,377 per ounce, leaving the precious metal positive on the five-day chart and snapping a three-week losing streak. The latest Kitco News Weekly Gold Survey showed Wall Street unanimously bullish after gold’s post-Fed gains, while Main Street bolstered its bullish majority following gold’s solid weekly performance. “Gold, basis the spot market, rose for the first time in four weeks, though at a little more than 0.5% the gain was minimal,” said Marc Chandler, managing director at Bannockburn Global Forex. “It bottomed in the middle of the week near $4235.60 and reached a new high for the week ahead of the weekend, slightly below $4400. A move above $4432-$4445 lifts the tone.” “Higher,” said Adam Button, head of currency strategy at investingLive. “Gold buyers appeared after a hawkish FOMC. That was impressive.” “Up,” said Darin Newsom, senior market analyst at Barchart.com. “Dec gold’s short-term trend on its daily close only chart has turned up, indicating at least a slight increase in investor buying (or possible a decrease in selling interest from the investment side). And while Dec dipped below its 45-day moving average at this past Tuesday’s close, it did not trigger algorithm selling. Taking into account other technical statistics, most notably stochastics continuing to indicate the market is closer to oversold than overbought and neutral market volatility, gold could find buying interest next week.” “BUY,” said Mark Leibovit, publisher of the VR Metals/Resource Letter. “Cycle low.” “Up,” said Adrian Day, president of Adrian Day Asset Management. “Recent actions by US Treasury Secretary Bessent tell us that the US bond market is broken and in trouble. The market’s reaction to Bessent’s interventions and to the Fed’s quarter-point hike tell us that these actions are not sufficient.” “A broken treasury market, along with persistent inflation, is positive for gold.” “Up,” said Rich Checkan, president and COO of Asset Strategies International. “The quarter-point interest rate hike by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) earlier this week was already priced into gold. So, after a knee-jerk pullback, gold recovered the lost ground. Going forward, with interest rates at 4% and ‘official’ inflation figures at 3.4%, there is really no incentive to forego gold for a real return of a half percent.” “Of course, consumers are feeling more like 8% inflation,” Checkan added. “Gold is much more attractive than ...