Gold Price Stabilizes after 4-Week Win Streak

GOLD PRICE NEWS – The gold price stabilized near $1,770 per ounce on Monday amid a relatively quiet start to the week.  The price of gold is riding a four-week winning streak in which it reached a seven-month high of $1,780.16 last Friday.  The recent gold price rally was driven in large part by the Federal Reserve’s decision to launch an open-ended third round of quantitative easing (QE3) and extend the timeframe for its near-zero interest rate policy to 2015.

Silver lagged the price of gold this morning, falling by $0.31, or 0.9%, to $34.42 per ounce.  However, the price of silver has also advanced for four straight weeks, and last Friday hit $34.99 per ounce – its best level since March 2nd.  On a year-to-date basis, silver is now up by 24.2%, while the gold price has risen 13.1%.

Shares of most gold mining companies retreated on Monday as the sector gave back a small portion of its recent strength.  The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) – which has climbed for six consecutive weeks and reached its highest level since March 5th – dropped $0.71, or 1.3%, to $53.15 per share this morning.  Notable gold stocks in the red included Barrick Gold (ABX) and Newmont Mining (NEM), which fell by 0.7% to $42.08 and by 0.9% to $56.67 per share, respectively.

Looking ahead, this week contains far fewer macroeconomic catalysts likely to have a significant impact on the gold price, especially relative to the past two weeks that included the Federal Reserve’s and European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy meetings.  However, the U.S. economic calendar contains a few noteworthy reports that could affect gold prices.

Data on housing starts and existing home sales for August will be released on Wednesday morning.  Thursday’s schedule includes reports on weekly jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed index for September, and leading indicators for August.

Commenting on the outlook for the gold price, Peter Fertig – a consultant for Quantitative Commodity Research – stated that “The market has to consolidate the gains it has made since the end of August. That has been already a significant move upwards for the various precious metals, so if we do not see $1,800 this week, that would not be a problem as, nevertheless, the signs are that precious metals prices are moving higher.”

Analysts at Commerzbank noted that “At around $1,770 per troy ounce, gold is trading close to the 6-1/2-month high it reached on Friday. It is not only ETF investors who have been contributing to the rising prices … but increasingly also speculative financial investors.”