Gold Price

Back on Jul. 10, the argument here was that the price of gold had hit an intermediate term overbought
on record speculative interest in the futures market. Despite the glaring technicals, the price held up
reasonably well until the last several weeks when market sentiment, observing a firming of the USD,
began to deteriorate as players encountered a fresh round of Fedspeak concerning the readiness of
the FOMC to raise short term rates before long (Dec. probably). The fundamentals remain ever so
mildly positive, but the gold price had so wildly over discounted them that a fast negative reversal
in gold's fortunes has rapidly ensued. Gold Price -- Weekly.

The sharp sell down in gold has eliminated the overbought position and the heavy premium to its 40
wk. m/a. Speculative long positions in the futures market are rapidly evaporating but still remain
elevated. The fundamentals ex. the USD have firmed up a bit more with a recovering oil price
leading the way. The dollar still has some short term upside before it hits an intermediate term resistance level. With plenty of chatter out there about the world's major central banks experiencing easing fatigue and a very unsettled UK pound market, it may be necessary to give the gold price a degree of downside leeway to important support at $1200 oz. In addition, since the recent price weakness in gold broke a nice uptrend line running back to late last year, there may be further, belated downside action in gold.

Going forward, it still pays to watch the US economy and whether further expansion is strong
enough to support a mild acceleration of inflation. True, short rates may rise gently further in
such a situation, but there is no guarantee whatsoever that the USD will follow rates higher.
If so, that may give gold another shot at redemption. And, who knows, if Der Trumpy wins
the election the gold guys might like that.