1. Coronavirus: Second Wave
Australia has reported its largest one-day spike in coronavirus cases in nearly two months, and this has raised alarm bells of a possible second wave.
The UK has announced the re-opening of its pubs and restaurants, and travel restrictions are likely to be eased off from next month. Remember, the UK was one of the worst countries in terms of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and it has the third-largest casualty rate due to coronavirus. If appropriate measures are not taken and respected, we will probably see another coronavirus wave coming to the UK.
Of course, positive news on the Coronavirus vaccine or success in calming down the protests, and protecting the global economy from damage can keep the gold prices in check, and this may halt the sharp rise that I am expecting.
2. Possible New Tariffs On Europe
Donald Trump, the man who is known for escalating trade tensions, anchored trade tensions once again yesterday. Trump is weighing new tariffs on $3.1 billion of exports from the UK, Spain, France, and Germany. If tensions continue to rise on this issue and Trump doesn’t back off from his stance—which could be one of his tactics to show himself strong ahead of the US elections—investors are likely to steer away from riskier assets.
However, if for some reason, the trade tariffs are avoided, or investors do not see this a potential threat to global economic growth, gold bulls may not succeed in pushing the gold price higher.
3. China-US Trade War
China is not a country that is going to sit on its hand and let the Trump administration to bully it. The Phase-one US-China trade deal has become immensely fragile due to coronavirus. China has reduced its Agriculture and poultry from the US. There has been confusion about the US-China trade deal, and Trump has also talked about “decoupling” from China. In addition to this, China sees the US stance on Hong Kong as interference in its domestic affairs.
Traders do not like the US picking a fight with the second biggest economy of the world, and we have seen the evidence of this last year that jolted the US stock market.
If, for some reason, we see the relationship between the US and China getting back on track with no further threats to the US-China trade deal, we may not see a massive surge in the gold price.
4. The US Unemployment Claims
The weekly jobless claims data continue to paint a very dull picture for the US labor market. Sadly, with the regional shutdown of stores in the US, it seems the minor recovery we have seen so far could be under a significant threat as well. In simple terms, the unemployment claims numbers are already ugly, and they are likely to become even worse because companies like Apple AAPL have begun the process of re-closing of their stores in US coronavirus hotspots.
The job market is the most important for the Federal Reserve, and Fed monetary policy is highly reflective of this. The Fed is determined to keep the interest rate lower for longer, and they are unlikely to increase the interest rates anytime soon. Another major central bank, the Bank of England, has provoked a new idea concerning interest rates, and will not increase the interest rates while the government balance sheet is mammoth. Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, has talked about this, and, likely, the Fed will also pay attention to this notion.
5. Earnings season
The third earnings quarter is currently wrapping up. At the beginning of this quarter, there was some hope for improvement as the economies began to re-open. But the emergence of the second corona wave is likely to trigger another cautionary note from US companies, and investors are not going to like it. The US stock market rally that we have seen after the Covid-19 stock market crash could lose its momentum. Again, the risk-off mode is likely to spur interest in gold.
However, if the US corporates start to focus more on the positive side and for some miraculous reason their cash burn ratio goes down, we may not see much movement in the gold prices
Source: – https://www.forbes.com