Gold backed up last week’s price gains, climbing back above our previously mentioned US$1180 resistance, reaching a 3 week high of 1195.30 overnight. Prices are on course to post their longest winning streak since January last year, with investors backing bullion over the past few days because of a slump in the dollar after the Federal Reserve’s cautious stance on the US economy and diminishing likelihood of an early rate increase. The dollar remains the main driving factor of gold price and traders will be looking very closely towards (Fed officials’) comments to gauge when and how rapid the rate hike will be.
As manufacturers we’ve observed that, while bullion sales may have waned, weak prices have spurred an increased in demand of precious metal for manufacturing into jewellery, semi-finished and/or final products. This anecdotal observation has been supported by a recent report from New York-based CPM Group, forecasting an increase of over 4% in 2015 of fabricated Gold products. Marking the second straight annual rise, and feeding my optimism of higher Gold and Silver prices. Demand is still out there, just that we’re observing it in a different form.
In last week’s report I pointed out an opportunity in Platinum, “at US$1116, this is undervalued considering fundamentals” and suggested that buying with “a view that we see a repositioning in the market which will carry Platinum to US$1175-1180 resistance levels.” Today’s platinum price now resides around US$1150, so we’re witnessing this correction unfold. If Gold continues its test of US$1200, then we should see our Platinum target met.
By Adam Van Sambeek