Gold price rockets more than $100 to seven-year high

The gold price rallied again in spectacular fashion on Tuesday, as panicked investors scramble for hard assets on the back covid-19 closures of mines and refineries and unprecedented monetary action by the US central bank.

On the Comex market in New York, gold for delivery in April, the most active contract, closed the session at $1,660 an ounce, up $93 an ounce compared to Monday’s close. Earlier in the day the metal rocketed by as much as $131 an ounce, or 8.4% , to just shy of $1,700 an ounce.

Tuesday’s surge beat yesterday’s record-setting one-day gain by a handy margin and brings gold’s gains so far this week to $150 an ounce.

Reuters quotes Goldman Sachs on Tuesday as saying inflationary concerns triggered by the central bank policy response to the coronavirus outbreak should underpin gold prices this year as the “currency of last resort.”

“Combined with the fiscal nature of the current policy response to covid-19, we believe physical inflationary concerns with the dollar starting near an all-time high will for once dominate financial asset inflation that was a feature of the past decade.”

CIBC analysts led by Anita Soni agreed that recent market events have created a buying opportunity for gold equities, Bloomberg reports:

“Near-zero interest rates, market uncertainty and ongoing liquidity injections, provides a bullish setup for gold and silver,” she said. This has created an “excellent opportunity to buy the dip across the sector.”

Gold has been on a wild ride over the past weeks, dropping as low as $1,450 an ounce a week ago after briefly hitting a seven-year high above $1,700 a week earlier.