(Bloomberg) -- Gold steadied near the highest in more than four months amid signs that investors are turning more bullish on the precious metal.
Hedge funds raised their net-long position to the highest since January, data showed Friday. Bullion-backed exchange-traded funds have seen inflows in May, following three months of sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Gold rose in the past three weeks as investors weighed inflation risks and spikes in coronavirus cases in some countries. Market-based gauges of inflation expectations have eased lately, though concerns linger that the post-pandemic recovery could stoke price pressures and force a pullback in central bank support. Investors were also weighing the extreme volatility in Bitcoin, which may have lent an added pillar of support to bullion.
“Gold prices are trending higher as weakness in cryptocurrencies and rising demand for inflation-hedge assets buoyed the appeal of the precious metal,” said Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX. “Recent ETF data showed that investors are stockpiling the yellow metal for the first time since January, underscoring rising appetite.”
Spot gold lost 0.1% to $1,879.47 an ounce by 10:19 a.m. in London, after reaching $1,890.13 last week, the highest since Jan. 8. Silver was little changed, palladium rose and platinum declined. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was steady.
“The recent move lower in real rates, accompanied by further U.S. dollar weakness, have been the key drivers of gold’s rebound,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Susan Bates said in the note on Monday. Still, “we continue to see a risk of a sharper sell-off similar to that seen in 2013 once tapering begins in 2022, but in our base case we assume price remains supported in the $1,600s per ounce until the first Fed rate hike.”
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said cryptocurrencies could stay a feature of global markets as something akin to “digital gold,” even if their importance in economies will remain limited. Cryptocurrencies offered an alternative to gold for those seeking an asset “separate and apart from the day-to-day workings of governments,” he said.
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