Gold News

Did the Fed Just Start a Gold Bull Market?

Maybe...

The U.S. FED's dovish shift was surprising. Maybe not the direction, but the scale for sure, writes Arkadiusz Sieron at Sunshine Profits.

After all, US GDP has been steadily growing, while the unemployment rate is at record lows. While inflation is below the target, it is still above 1.5%.

Why would the Fed lower the federal funds rate in such positive macroeconomic conditions?

But as the fresh dot-plot of Fed forecasts shows, eight of the 17 members of the FOMC are now willing to cut interest rates this year, and seven of that dovish group would prefer to see rates being lowered twice in 2019.

Eight other participants see no changes in the level of federal funds rate, and only one person wants a 25-basis points hike.

It may seem that the Fed either does the Wall Street's bidding or it got swayed by Trump's publicly expressed and repeated dissatisfaction with the tightening cycle. Or the US central bank is really obsessed with having inflation exactly at 2%, as if it is a magic number. Anyway, the case for lower rates is building, as Powell said during his June-meeting press conference.

However, it does not mean that the Fed will cut rates in July. They are just laying groundwork to act if needed.

A lot will depend on the incoming economic data and the outcome of the Donald Trump-Xi Jinping meeting at G20 summit this weekend. If the trade wars escalate while the economic reports substantially deteriorate, the Fed may indeed cut rates as soon as in July. However, it the trade wars deescalate while the economic picture remains solid, the cut should not happen, at least if the Fed still independently makes data-driven decisions. While the betting markets see the July rate cut as a foregone conclusion, it's actually still far from being one – there're many moving parts and the Fed has just laid the groundwork for a possible rate cut without committing to one.

The dovish FOMC meeting was great for the gold prices, the price of the yellow metal soaring above $1400 to the highest level since 2013.

It's a huge development, as gold got out of a five-year trading range, despite the relative strength of the US Dollar. For the past few years, the yellow metal could not unleash itself from the sideways trend and rally above $1350. Now it's above $1400, which creates hopes for further rally.

Although it is still way too early to announce the start of a new bull market (quite a few metrics don't correspond to what can be reasonably expected in the context of a newborn bull market), the fundamentals are slowly turning positive for gold. We have been repeating for a long time that the more dovish Fed will make 2019 better year for gold than 2018. While it's still two quarters before the year is over, low bond yields won't exert downward pressure on the gold price.

If the markets were to start questioning the Fed's credibility (aka confidence in the Fed takes a hit), that wouldn't push gold price down only by itself either. The latest FOMC meeting clearly shows the limits faced by central bankers in unwinding the post-GFC stimulus and normalizing the monetary policy.

Moreover, the yield curve has recently inverted, which prompted many investors to assume that the recession is coming. So, they started to anticipate that the US central bank will cut interest rates. An environment in which people worry about economic downturn, while the Fed considers reducing the borrowing costs, is conducive to higher gold prices. However, as the rate cut is not a done deal, the gold bulls may be in for a disappointment at the next Fed meeting.

Sunshine Profits is an independent research and trading-signal service with offices in both New York and Sopot, northern Poland.

Please Note: All articles published here are to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it. Please review our Terms & Conditions for accessing Gold News.

Follow Us

Facebook Youtube Twitter LinkedIn

 

 

Market Fundamentals