Gold prices opened on Monday at $1,271.77 and the market quickly took off. By midday in New York, the yellow metal had reached $1,281.30 and prices stayed there through the afternoon to close at $1,281.93. Tuesday opened with gold prices at $1,273.01 and maintained a mostly bullish direction throughout the day to close up at $1,275.30. Wednesday continued gold’s rally, opening up more than $5.00 at $1,280.74, saw an intraday high of $1,286.19, and closed up on the day at $1,281.99. Afterhours trading continued to push the yellow metal higher and Thursday opened at $1,284.85 and, after some early setbacks, the market continued higher to close at $1,286.77 for the day. Friday opened down slightly at $1,284.36, then pulled back due to the unwinding of a large short position in gold, to close the week out at $1,275.07. Still, gold and the precious metals complex were up for the second week in a row.
Monday’s major news was the reaction from the shakeup over the weekend in the Saudi government, which drove oil prices higher and, as a result, the entire commodities complex. 1 Complicating matters was dollar weakness in reaction to the revelation the GOP tax plan included a 20 percent excise tax on foreign earnings. 2 Tuesday’s big story was elections in select states such as Georgia, Utah, New York, Virginia, and New Jersey, in which Democrats appeared to have scored some major victories. The results were viewed as a pushback on President Trump’s agenda and therefore a sign of potential economic uncertainty, which caused equities and the dollar to fall dramatically, and the entire precious metals complex to rally. The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, as the U.S. markets slid into Veteran’s Day celebrations.
The proverbial canaries in the coal mine keep appearing with talk of a stock market bubble and a buying opportunity for gold.