Gold Fundamental Forecast - Bearish
- Gold prices[1] gained just one percent, but it was the best week since mid-June
- Markets are increasingly pricing in a Fed pivot despite 9.1% y/y inflation
- All eyes are on the Federal Reserve, US GDP and PCE data in the week ahead
Gold prices saw a slight recovery this past week, with XAU/USD[2] rising about one percent. While it was not much, that was the best weekly performance since the middle of June. A combination of a weaker US Dollar[3] and falling Treasury yields likely benefited the anti-fiat yellow metal. Is there more scope here for gold to continue rallying?
To understand the reversal in gold better, you need to investigate what the markets expect the Federal Reserve to do ahead. All eyes are on its next interest rate announcement on Wednesday, where another 75-basis point rate hike is seen. This follows still-high US inflation, with the headline rate running at 9.1% y/y and consistently beating economists’ estimates.
Yet, a more hawkish Fed ought to boost the US Dollar and bond yields, working against gold. That has been the broader story this year, hence the persistent decline in XAU/USD. Global monetary tightening is also working against gold. But, it seems that this past week, the markets focused more on what could happen further down the road.
Expectations of a Fed pivot next year climbed, with markets seeing 2 cuts in 2023. This has been associated with deeper inversion of the yield curve[4], specifically the 10-year and 2-year rate spread. Meanwhile, economists have been downgrading 2023 real growth expectations. Despite this, near-term breakeven rates have been rising recently, indicating rising inflation expectations[5].
All this seems to paint a story of the markets
