Gold futures may rise in price to $3.2 thousand per ounce in the fourth quarter of this year amid increased demand for protective assets, according to analysts at Swiss bank UBS.
The previous forecast predicted an increase in quotations to $3 thousand per ounce, but futures overcame this mark last week.
The escalation of trade conflicts emphasizes the role of the precious metal as a safe haven asset, said UBS experts led by Wayne Gordon and Giovanni Staunovo. In their opinion, additional demand for gold will be spurred by fears of a recession in the United States.
“We continue to believe that the decision to have about 5% gold in the investment portfolio will be optimal from a long-term diversification perspective,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, DoubleLine Capital founder and chief investment officer Jeffrey Gundlach set an even more optimistic target price for gold at $4,000 per ounce.
“Gold is continuing the rally we’ve been talking about for several years now,” said the investor, who has been nicknamed the ”King of Bonds. – “I will make a bold prediction and say that gold will reach $4 thousand.
Gundlach added that he was not sure it would happen this year. At the same time, he noted that gold purchases by central banks are growing “on a very, very sharp trajectory,” and this is unlikely to change in the near future.
In his opinion, the probability of a recession in the US economy this year is about 60%.
April gold futures are little changed in price on Monday afternoon and are trading at $3002.8 per ounce. Since the beginning of the year, the price of gold has risen by 12.7%.
According to MarketWatch, in January 1980, at the height of a period of particularly high inflation in the United States, which exceeded 14%, gold prices reached $873 per ounce. Adjusted for inflation in today’s money, this amounts to about $3,580 thousand per ounce, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
