By Gold price continued its relentless bull run and is now hovering at its highest level on record. It jumped to a high of $3,586, continuing a trend that has been going on for months. This article highlights some of the top reasons why gold price is in a bull run.
Gold ETF inflows are soaring
The first main reason why gold price is in a strong surge is that investors are still boosting their investments. One way to look at this is ETF inflows, which have continued rising in the past few months.
Data shows that the closely-watched SPDR Gold ETF (SPY) added over $451 million in assets last week after it added $2.3 billion a week earlier.
It has added over $11 billion in assets this year, pushing its assets to over $115 billion. The same trend is happening across other gold ETFs and mutual funds.
China central bank buying
The other major catalyst for the gold price is that China’s central bank has continued its buying spree as it continues to diversify from US dollars. It has now bought gold in the last ten consecutive months.
The PBOC bought 0.06 million troy ounces in August, bringing its total holdings to over 74 million. It has now bought 1.2 million ounces worth over $4 billion in the same period. Other central banks, like those in India and Russia, have also been buying gold.
Potential Federal Reserve cuts
Gold price is soaring as investors position themselves for the start of interest cuts. Odds of interest rate cuts have jumped after the US published weak economic numbers. A report on Friday showed that the economy created just 22,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.3%.
The main risk for the interest rate cuts is that the economy is in stagflation as inflation rises. Data scheduled for this week is expected to show that the headline consumer price index (CPI) rose to 2.9% and the core CPI moved to 3.3%.
As such, cutting interest rates during a stagflation risks pushing the economy to a high inflationary period. Gold price benefits in such periods because it is one of the most common safe-haven assets.
Federal Reserve independence
Gold price is also seeing substantial traction among investors because of the threat to Federal Reserve independence. Donald Trump has continued to call for Jerome Powell to cut interest rates this year.
Most recently, he fired Lisa Cook, a Fed governor citing her mortgage application. Trump hopes that firing her will give him a chance to add another Fed governor to the bank.
He may also use her firing to test the legal issue of replacing Jerome Powell, who he has contemplated firing in the past.
Trade war and geopolitics
Gold price has soared because of the ongoing trade war between the United States and other countries. This trade war is reshaping geoplitics, with China and India deepening their ties.
Gold is often seen is a safe haven asset, meaning that it does well when there are risks in the economy. Therefore, these reasons mean that gold price will continue doing well in the coming months as these issues persist.
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