Shortly after the futures market opened, gold reached our long-time-awaited price target of $2,300 and established a new all-time high at $2,305 before retreating slightly lower. We continue to be bullish on gold in the long term and believe it can reach significantly higher price tags ($2,500 and higher) due to future rate cuts, sticky inflation, and a weak U.S. dollar. Nevertheless, despite our bullish beliefs, there are certain developments in the market to consider and watch out for.
According to the World Gold Council's report earlier this year (and information from Metals Focus and ICE Benchmark Administration), gold total demand rose approximately 3% YoY in 2023. However, what is intriguing about this figure is that the majority of the mentioned sectors in the report experienced year-over-year declines in demand that same year, including electronics, dentistry, technology, jewelry fabrication, gold bars, central bank purchases, ETFs, and investment. In fact, only four sectors showed positive gains, with most of the demand coming from over-the-counter and other (recording a 753% rise YoY); the rest of the categories that gained include industrial demand, imitation coins, and jewelry consumption (these rises are notably smaller though). Now, with gold being up 26% merely in the past six months, the question stands as to whether there will be enough demand from over-the-counter (and other sectors, which seems unlikely) in the coming months as well because gold’s elevated price (perhaps coupled with slowing down economic activity in certain parts of the world) seems to be already taking some toll on the demand side.
Besides that, while bullish and still leaving some room for the upside, multiple technical indicators on daily and weekly time frames show overbought conditions that should not be overlooked, especially with gold’s lengthy history of steep rises being shortly followed by volatile drops. Furthermore, as we outlined numerous times before, the stock market’s relentless rise and the growing odds of correction threaten gold’s performance with each step higher (in the case of a substantial correction or selloff in the stock market, gold will likely be negatively affected).
Illustration 1.01 As gold’s price explores uncharted waters, volume continues to increase on the daily graph, which is positive; a declining volume and rising price would be questionable.
Illustration 1.02 Illustration 1.02 shows the daily chart of XAUUSD and simple support/resistance levels derived from past peaks and troughs.
Illustration 1.03 The price and RSI show the divergence on the daily chart.
Technical analysis gauge Daily time frame = Bullish Weekly time frame = Bullish *The gauge does not necessarily indicate where the market will head. Instead, it reflects the constellation of RSI, MACD, Stochastic, DM+-, ADX, and moving averages.
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DISCLAIMER: This analysis is not intended to encourage any buying or selling of any particular securities. Furthermore, it should not serve as a basis for taking any trade action by an individual investor or any other entity. Your own due diligence is highly advised before entering a trade.