One commodity is sitting out the red-hot reopening trade. Gold, often viewed as an inflation hedge, is missing out on the melt up.
ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon says three key factors are outshining the precious metal.
“It’s a demand issue, for sure,” Lydon told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Wednesday. “People don’t need gold right now, they need everything else,” he added, pointing to the commodities currently in high demand such as base metals, oil and agricultural goods.
Along with the issue of demand, the gold trade is getting slapped by the rising prices trickling down to consumers.
“We’re also in this situation where people are increasing prices,” he said. “We’re seeing it at the pumps, we’re seeing it in supermarkets as well.”
Lydon also points to how gold has taken a backseat to its digital rival bitcoin. With the cryptocurrency surging to record heights this year, “it’s taken a little bit of the luster out of gold,” he said.
In the same interview, Andrew McOrmond, managing director at WallachBeth Capital, highlighted some of the recent movement seen in the commodity and the digital currency.
“Gold’s actually caught a little bit of a rally, if you’ve noticed, in the last two weeks, really ... with the correction in the cryptocurrency,” McOrmond said.
Although the cryptocurrency and gold markets have been extremely volatile, McOrmond said his clients remain bullish on the precious metal.
“Our clients think that there could be a little bit of a pop here,” he said. “We’ve seen some buying [in the IAU gold ETF].”
Gold is “actually near an all-time high. It just doesn’t move as fast, so I think it could hit that $2,000 level pretty soon,” McOrmond added.
Gold prices fell more than 1% on Thursday to below $1,890. A move back to $2,000 implies nearly 6% upside.
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