Gold steadied, after recovering some losses when dip buyers stepped in following an abrupt retreat from record highs.
Bullion was near $4,950 an ounce in early trading, after climbing more than 6% in the previous session as a risk-on tone returned to markets and the US dollar weakened. At the close on Tuesday, gold was around 12% below an all-time high hit on Jan. 29 — but was still up nearly 15% for the year. Silver also steadied.
“Forced sales have likely run their course in precious metals,” Daniel Ghali, a senior commodity strategist at TD Securities, said in a note. “The intense volatility over the last week could certainly keep retail participants on the sidelines, removing an increasingly important cohort of buyers,” he said.
Precious metals soared last month in a rally underpinned by speculative momentum, geopolitical upheaval and concerns about the Federal Reserve's independence. That surge came to a sudden halt at the end of last week, with silver seeing its biggest daily drop on record and gold plunging the most since 2013. That followed a slew of warnings from market watchers that the advances had been too large and too swift.
Chinese funds and Western retail investors had built up large positions in precious metals, and further fuel was added by investors piling into leveraged exchange-traded products and a wave of call-options buying. A sudden collapse during Asian trading hours on Friday continued into the early part of this week.
Volatility in precious metals will remain elevated, according to Bank of America Corp. Gold has a stronger, longer-term investment thesis than silver, said Niklas Westermark, head of EMEA commodities trading at BofA. While inflated prices and market turmoil may affect position sizing, it won't dampen overall investor interest, he said.
Many banks have backed gold to recover, with Deutsche Bank AG saying on Monday that it was standing by its forecast for bullion to rally to $6,000 an ounce.
Gold was little changed at $4,944.66 an ounce as of 7:49 a.m. in Singapore. Silver edged down 0.8% to $84.48. Platinum rose, while palladium fell. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the US currency, was flat after ending the previous session down 0.3%.
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