After Monday’s opening of $1,275.42 an ounce, light selling drove the closing price of gold to $1,270.55. This brought in buying from bargain hunters and an overnight high of $1,281.08. That activity resulted in gold prices opening at $1,272.72 on Tuesday. Gold buying continued throughout the day until the final trade was matched at a quote of $1,274.75. Wednesday opened with another slight upwards bump of $1,275.30 before light profit taking brought the closing price of gold to $1,274.84. Gold prices opened at $1,274.71 on Thursday morning. Selling resulted in a close of $1,268.96, as well as a Friday opening quote of $1,261.37. However, this brought in buying from bargain hunters that nudged the price back to $1,274.92 by midmorning, and a close of $1,276.40, up from the week’s open.
The historical price of gold chart indicates that investors have enjoyed a solid 11 percent increase in value for the year, which puts the yellow metal in a top-performing asset class. With economic analysts seeing a near-term stock market correction, and the assumption of no chance that savings will yield more than a percent or two for the next couple of years, gold continues to attract the attention of many long-term savers and investors. 1
The coming week will produce several items of news with the T-bill auctions and new mortgage applications, as well as early jobless claims data. The scheduled Fed speeches will be watched for indications of a December rate hike, influenced heavily by the latest inflation data.
Traders and institutions enter this final quarter of the year looking closely at their annual performance numbers, and any significant profit taking to lock in gains in the securities market will present the opportunity for creating more selling and provide liquidity for adding to current gold holdings. This latter potential is shown in the recent increase in bullish futures buying.