Gold Looking To Extend Gains

 | Oct 21, 2015 01:56AM ET

Gold has made some solid gains over the past few weeks as the market begins to doubt if we will see a rate rise from the Fed this year. A break through of a solid resistance level, and a pull back to it signals the market is looking to take gold through the recent four month high.

Gold has seen plenty of demand thanks to a series of mixed economic data sets that have many market participants questioning whether the Fed will be able to justify a rate rise in 2015. Last week the poor US core retail sales figures at -0.3% m/m (0.1% prev) highlights the uncertainty in the US consumer sector, which generally underpins the US economy. At the same time the PPI result was released and added to the upward pressure on gold as it came in at -0.5% m/m, down from 0.0%.

Earlier this month we heard from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer whose rhetoric is slightly changing when it comes to interest rates. His stance is now that a rate rise in 2015 is an “expectation, not a commitment”. In other words, the Fed would like to raise rates but does not have the data to do so. The market agrees and Gold has been bid higher on expectation of lower interest rates for longer.

Mr Fischer also pointed to weakness in the labour market, noting that real wage growth remains subdued and hiring has slowed over the past two months. Certainly the issue of low inflation is causing headaches for the Fed, but to the benefit of the gold price. The Fed meeting on 27th October will be one to watch, with at least one FOMC member suggesting this was still a “live” meeting and that a hike was “possible”. That being said, it will be difficult for the Fed to justify a hike in October, if they could not hike in September, so expect more of the same.