Gold: Rebound Or Breakdown?

 | Aug 07, 2015 10:36AM ET

The precious-metals complex has attempted to stabilize over the past few weeks. Some markets have had more success than others. gold has been able to hold $1080/oz while (ARCA:GDXJ) has also held its recent low. The large cap indices ((NYSE:GDXX), XAU, HUI) have grinded lower to new bear market lows this week. This leads us to the near-term predicament. Is the sector basing before a rebound or merely consolidating before another steep leg down?

Gold will certainly give us the answer and it could come within a few days. While gold has held support at $1080/oz it has yet to break above $1100/oz. A daily close above $1100/oz would likely lead to $1140/oz whereas a daily close below $1080/oz could lead to a decline down to major support around $1000/oz. We should note that the current net speculative position in gold is the lowest in 14 years at 3.4% of open interest or ~15K contracts. I would not be surprised to see speculators eventually become net short gold.