Dovish Or Hawkish Fed? Gold Should Win The Day – VanEck

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Dovish Or Hawkish Fed? Gold Should Win The Day – VanEck

24 Jan 2019

Next week the Federal Reserve will hold its first monetary policy meeting of the year and gold could benefit no matter what action the central bank takes, according to one gold market analyst.

In a recent commentary, Joe Foster, portfolio manager and strategist for VanEck’s gold and precious metals strategy, said that he sees two scenarios playing out next week.


The first is where the U.S. central bank maintains its hawkish stance, which could potentially drive the U.S. economy into a recession.

“This may bring increased financial risks from highly-indebted governments and corporates,” he said.

The second scenario is where the Federal Reserve takes a dovish stance and pauses its monetary policy tightening.

“This would likely bring U.S. dollar weakness,” he said. “Both scenarios would be favorable for gold.”

 

Foster’s comments come as central bank committee members, including Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, have signaled a more dovish stance on monetary policy since raising interest rates in December and signaling two rate hikes in 2019.

Following last month’s rate hike, Powell reiterated that the because of low inflation pressures, U.S. central bank can be patient with hikes to see how U.S. economic growth evolves.

“The stock market, crude oil, bonds, and President Trump all signaled that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell had made a grave mistake by indicating more rate increases to come in 2019,” he said. “We also believe that the Fed made a serious mistake, but we think the blame should be placed on Mr. Powell’s predecessors, who waited far too long to normalize monetary policy. Now the Fed is tasked with normalizing rates late in the cycle, and it is rapidly running out of time.”

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are not pricing in any tightening in monetary policy next week. For the year, markets see less than a 25% chance of one rate hike. However, many economists are pricing in one hike sometime in the second half of the year.

In the current environment, Foster said that he sees the potential for gold prices to test long-term resistance at $1,365 an ounce.

“If the markets are seeing enough systemic risks to move gold through this level, we believe it should be a very good year for investors in gold and gold stocks,” he said.

Although gold has managed to hold critical near-term support levels, prices have struggled to find the momentum to break key psychological resistance at $1,300 an ounce. February gold futures last traded at $1,283.30 an ounce, nearly unchanged on the day.


Reference: Kitco




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