Investing.com – The most unusual correlation play of the year continued on Friday, with gold notching a two-month high in $1,500 territory while U.S. stock prices rose to new peaks.
Analysts think gold is having a late rally because of investors seeking the yellow metal as a hedge to the overflowing risks on Wall Street, where stocks have been hitting one record high after another. Bullion and gold futures have tacked on as much as $50 an ounce over the past three weeks to reclaim the bullish $1,500 perch and progress from there, despite no appreciable change in fundamentals.
In Friday’s session, Wall Street’s leading stock indexes touched record highs in early trade as strong Chinese industrial profits data bolstered hopes that Beijing might be ready to sign a trade deal with the United States soon.
Wall Street has had one of its biggest and most prolonged bull runs this year on optimism over the imminent China deal, as well as runaway jobs growth and other strong U.S. economic data.
Spot gold is up nearly 18% for 2019, while gold futures have risen almost 16%.
Gold futures for February delivery on New York’s COMEX settled up $3.70, or 0.2%, at $1,518.10 per ounce. It earlier hit a two-month high of $1,519.85.
Spot gold, which tracks live trades in bullion, was down 8 cents, or 0.01%, at $1,511.22 by 3:25 PM ET (20:25 GMT), after a 7-week high of $1,515.39 earlier.
Wall Street has had one of its biggest and most prolonged bull runs this year on optimism over the imminent China deal, as well as runaway jobs growth and other strong U.S. economic data.
Spot gold is up nearly 18% for 2019, while gold futures have risen almost 16%.