Latest data show hedge funds and other money managers taking the largest bullish bets on gold futures and options ever in the week-to-last Tuesday.
The British Pound meantime steadied as the UK’s ruling Conservative Party was left with just 1 candidate, current Interior Minister Theresa May, to replace failed Brexit Remain campaign leader David Cameron as prime minister.
That helped debt gold priced in Sterling to £1040 per ounce, almost 3% below last week’s new 3-year highs.
“Bank of England poised to slash interest rates to shore up economy,” says The Daily Telegraph, echoes by the Financial Times, The Guardian, the BBC and the rest of Britain’s media – although a blog at the British Bankers’ Association urges “caution”, as post-Brexit data have yet to start coming in, and the current 0.5% record low leaves little room for consumers or businesses to grow their borrowing in response to a cut.
New York’s S&P500 index of the largest US-listed stocks today touched new all-time highs, driven by “growth optimism, stimulus bets,” according to Bloomberg
Major government bond prices retreated, edging yields higher from new all-time record lows, while industrial and agricultural commodities rose.
nalysts at US financial services giant Citi now see gold prices averaging $1250 in 2017, with a 1-in-5 chance of “a possible severe exacerbation of already elevated US and global growth concerns” sending that up to $1440 per ounce.
Gold should rally towards $1400 this year,” says a ‘top trade’ highlighted for clients of French investment bank Societe Generale – also advising they sell copper as China’s economy weakens – “as the US Fed is unlikely to hike this year after the Brexit vote.”
