CNBC: Gold Could Hit $2,000 in a World Full of Negative Yields

Article by Patti Domm in CNBC financial

In a world full of negative yielding debt, hard assets like gold could become even more attractive, and some strategists say a case could be made for a $2,000 per ounce price tag on the precious metal.

Gold futures were at $1,513.80 an ounce Tuesday, down about 0.2%. In late May, gold snapped out of its slumber, broke above $1,300 and has not looked back. In September, 2011, gold futures reached all-time high of $1,923.70 per ounce.

“We have a long position trade on. We are targeting $1,585,” said Daniel Ghali, commodities strategist at TD Securities. “We do think gold is on its way higher for the time being...Over the coming years as the likelihood of the unconventional policy becomes more of a reality, I could see a case for gold at $2,000.”

Gold has also been firming as the world watches protests in Hong Kong and also the uncertainty around U.S., China trade relations. TD Securities strategists believe the many years of unconventional and easy monetary policy from the world’s central banks has resulted in a shortage of “safe assets” and that’s “evident by the fast growing pile of negative yielding debt, which is ultimately leading to a growing appetite for precious metals.”

“Negative yields are symptomatic for the search for safe assets. The reason they’re trading at negative yields is because the demand for safe assets is bigger than the supply for them,′ said Ghali. “Gold stands to benefit quite a bit from that. I would argue we are likely on the cusp of a multi-year bull market for gold.”

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s metals strategist Michael Widmer, in a note, also says negative yields are making gold shine. He said the successive rounds of monetary easing driving bond yields lower and creating $14 trillion in negative yielding debt have also been recently supported gold prices. “With more easing to come, the dynamic will likely sustain a bid for the yellow metal,”he wrote.

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