No end seen for gold rally

“From the rebased price level, with these positive price factors still set to play out ahead of us, we upgrade our price forecast to $2,700/ounce by year-end as against $2,300/ounce previously,” they said in a weekend note citing the yellow metal’s bull market indifference to the usual macro factors.

James Steel, the chief precious metals analyst at HSBC Securities US, said gold is hitting record highs on geopolitical risks, financial uncertainties, higher stock valuations, and rate cut expectations in 2025 which all may keep the prices strong. Another reason is the record gold buying by central banks and China, the world’s largest consumer importing close to 350 tonnes in the first two months of 2024.

“The ongoing gold rally has been fueled by a powerful cocktail of safe-haven and hedge fund purchases, prompted by record-high equities and sticky inflation, triggering heavy momentum buying, though market sentiment is clearly bullish, and while the near-term upward trajectory shows no signs of slacking, we think prices are progressively overstretched,” Steel said.