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Gold and silver were on the rise again this week, with banks and investment firms upping their price forecasts for the yellow metal and predicting the return of a bull market.
It was a tumultuous week for the gold price, but overall, the yellow metal has continued its uptrend since the start of the year. Gold prices were up 0.55 percent to $1,272.30 per ounce this week.
Analysts at JP Morgan recommended that its clients get read for a “new and very long bull market for gold” in a note to clients this week. The firm’s Solita Marcelli told CNBC’s Futures Now that with a 20 percent rally so far in 2016, gold looks to be gearing up for higher prices. “$1,400 is very much in the cards this year.” Marcelli said.
Goldman Sachs also raised its gold price forecasts this week, according to Reuters, but the firm doesn’t see prices moving quite as highly as predicted by JP Morgan. “Looking ahead, we see limited upside for gold pricing given the limited room for the Fed to surprise to the downside, limited room for the dollar to depreciate, and limited room for China to drive (emerging market) currency strength to contribute to dollar weakness,” it said in a note.
The silver price got a bump as well this week, rising 0.26 percent to $17.04 per ounce. As with gold, silver is now up over 20 percent year-to-date. Erica Rannestad of Thomson Reuters GFMS recently told the Investing News Network that a reemergence in safe haven demand has in part been driving silver’s rise this year.
On the base metals side of things, comex copper prices dropped again for the week, losing 1.18 percent to reach $2.11. Prices for the red metal fell following weaker than expected manufacturing data from China and the US, according to Bloomberg. Furthermore, efforts to put a damper on speculation in commodities trading in China were also weighing on copper prices.
Finally, spot oil prices fell slightly on Friday, but gained 7.17 percent for the week overall to reach $46.21 per barrel. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that the world’s oil stocks would see a “dramatic reduction” in the latter half of 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported, which helped to give oil a boost.
As per MarketWatch, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude contracts for deliver in June finished the week up 1 percent at $46.22 per barrel, while July contracts for Brent Crude lost 0.5 percent to $47.83 per barrel.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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