Dubai: Gold prices have dropped sharply by $30 today to $2,398 an ounce, as the ‘safe haven’ asset becomes another casualty of the turmoil in global markets. Even with this drop, it’s still not at levels that shoppers in the UAE or anywhere else would be comfortable with.
But potential shoppers will feel better if they looked at it from different perspective. Just last month, gold went in for another surge, and this time managed to find a way all the way up to $2,482 an ounce, thus creating a new record high. At the time, it did seem that gold would carry all the way to $2,500, after breaking $2,300 and $2,400 within the first six months of 2024.
Can buyers now hope for more price relief? Bas Kooijman is CEO of DHF Capital, and he doesn’t hold out much hope for that happening.
This decline may be temporary, as the precious metal maintains strong fundamentals that could support further price advances.
For now, the current price drop has to do with bullion investors doing some profit taking. (As is always the case, gold shoppers can only stay on the sidelines and hope that prices would turn favourable at some point.)
UAE gold jewellery retailers reckon that ‘favourable’ pricing could be anything in the range of $2,100-$2,200 an ounce.
Gold has been above $2,000 levels since mid-February 2024 and in the $2,290 plus range right since late April.
Bitcoin sheds the blues
Today, another alt-asset, Bitcoin, is back in some form - trading at $55,407 - after a precipitous price decline on Monday, when it had come to under $50,000 for a short while. (This was the first time since February for the cryptocurrency.)
"The pullback on Bitcoin, Ethereum and other virtual assets trace the broader negative sentiment that hit financial markets in early August, and rising concerns about a potential economic recession in the US,” said Ola Doudin, co-founder and CEO of BitOasis.
“While such corrections are nothing new, they are a natural part of the market cycle, investors need to be mindful of the risks involved and remain vigilant."
