Gold scores highest settlement in four months - MarketWatch

Gold scores highest settlement in four months - MarketWatch: "“The latest rally has been fueled by a three-week plunge in the U.S. dollar and small speculators leaning on the short side of the metal expecting it to test the $1,000 level,” said Ken Ford, president of Warwick Valley Financial Advisors.

The U.S. dollar index DXY, +0.31%  posted declines over the past two weeks, and was poised for a loss this week as expectations for a U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate hike this year fades. The index on Thursday, however, strengthened after data showing weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since the early 1970s.

“Gold has entered its favorable seasonality period,” said Ford. “Looking back at almost 40 years of data, gold tends to sell off between March and July then rallies into year-end.”

“There are various reasons why gold tends to rise during back half of the of the year…including the wedding season in India,” he said.

Now that gold has cleared some important technical levels at $1,156 and $1,169, there is a good chance that the “downtrend has reversed,” he said. Gold futures logged losses in each of the past two years, but with Thursday’s gain, turned slightly higher this year to date."



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