Gold: Is $1,900 Happening Soon?

 | Dec 04, 2020 03:54AM ET

Technically, the most brutal market corrections often result in the most aggressive reversals. If that adage is to apply to gold in its bid to return to $1,900 an ounce, then consider a fundamental that could further juice that technical story: stimulus.

Gold had its most crushing selloff in two months last week, losing $90 or almost 5%, after breakthroughs in COVID-19 vaccines and their potential availability before Christmas caused a run on money in safe-havens and an epic rally in stocks amid the notion that the world might soon be free of the pandemic.

Yet, this week, gold is up nearly 4%, clawing back almost $65 to hover at $1,845 by lunch hour in Asia on Friday, or about 1:30 AM ET in New York. Vaccines are still very much the narrative in markets, but something else has come along to sweep almost everything higher at once—like the proverbial tide that lifts all boats. It is renewed talk of a second US coronavirus stimulus.

After multiple roadblocks over the past six months and other twists and turns, a bipartisan group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers, fed up of the politics that have denied millions of needy Americans aid, are demanding that Congress and the Senate pass a $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill that could be distributed right away. 

If those funds aren’t enough, there’s another $455 billion left over from the original $3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act approved in March, that could also be appropriated for current use, the group said. That’s almost $1.4 trillion—somewhat short of the $2 trillion the Democrats originally sought but way above the miserly $300 billion that the Republicans offered. 

For stock markets already pumped up on vaccine news, renewed talk of a stimulus has been yet another reason to hit record highs. For gold, particularly, the bipartisan initiative has been a lifeline thrown at the right time to rescue it from the $1,700 abyss it was hurtling into last week. 

While few may expect the yellow metal to return immediately to the all-time highs of $2,000 and above reached in August, some aren’t discounting a return to $1,900 in the near-term. 

The good news is, numerically, that target isn’t very far away—just slightly more than $50 from where gold stood at in Friday’s Asian trading.