Drop in Gold Prices to Push Demand

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Drop in Gold Prices to Push Demand

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Normally, if the price of something special falls, demand rises. The World Gold Council (WGC) believes that demand for gold will be spurred by other economic factors as well. The price of gold is going north, at least according to the WGC’s analysis.

The organization’s reasoning:

The gold price fell below US $1,300/oz, the first time it has been at these levels since June 2016. We believe this price drop will likely result in physical buying.

The need of central banks to continue to fix faltering major economies and worry about uncertainty about the future of the developed world will be factors:

We believe that a shift in monetary policy need not signal lower gold prices. The price dip will likely result in physical demand from consumers, long term investors and central banks. The broader market environment of ongoing low and negative interest rates, coupled with continuing political, economic and policy uncertainty remains unchanged, and are generally positive for gold.

In other words, gold is a sort of investor’s safe haven.

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Even with a pullback in price, the WGC points out that gold has been an excellent investment this year, only exceeded by the price of oil. Gold’s return has been 20%, against, for example, U.S. stocks, which have been closer to 7%.

Finally, the WGC argues:

Market fluctuations will naturally occur from time to time, but the fundamental environment for gold remains strongly supportive. The broader market environment of ongoing low and negative interest rates, coupled with continuing political, economic and policy uncertainty remains unchanged, and are generally positive for gold.

Investors can keep it in their homes, banks or vaults and know they have access when they need it.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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