Critical information for the U.S. trading day
A weaker day is setting up for stocks on Tuesday, as optimism over U.S. stimulus progress and vaccine news starts to fade, and attention turns to the start of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting.
The asset that stole the show on Monday, of course, was gold GCQ20, 0.69%, which climbed to $1,931 an ounce, the highest settlement in history. That juiced the crowd expecting $2,000 an ounce soon, and leads us to our call of the day from Goldman Sachs, which has ditched its own $2,000 forecast and says we’re going to see $2,300 an ounce in the next 12 months.
The bank also lifted its silver outlook to $30 from $22 an ounce.
Driven by “a potential shift in the U.S. Fed toward an inflationary bias against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, elevated U.S. domestic political and social uncertainty, and a growing second wave of COVID-19 related infections,” gold’s surge to new highs lately has outpaced gains for real rates and other alternatives to the dollar, said a team of analysts led by Jeffrey Currie.
“Combined with a record level of debt accumulation by the U.S. government, real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency have started to emerge,” said the team.