Gold. Bitcoin is still far from the metal.
Gold, one of the commodities largely used as a hedge against the volatility of traditional equities and financial markets, is trading at a price just 1% below its 8-years high. According to a portfolio manager at VanEck, however, the price is headed to at least $2,000.
Gold has traditionally been regarded as one of the safest assets to invest in as its price keeps on growing over the long term.
At the time of this writing, gold trades at around $1,680 per ounce, but on March 8th this year, it peaked at $1,703, which is just one percent less than its 8-year high. In other words, the last time gold was trading at this price was all the way back in 2012.
Its value is constantly brought up in the past couple of months as the coronavirus outbreak caused major turmoil in the financial and stock markets.
According to the popular economist and renowned author, Peter Schiff, the only good option for the US to avoid hyperinflation is to bring back the gold standard.
And while gold maintains its status as a safe haven, Joe Foster, a portfolio manager at Van Eck International Investors Gold Fund, believes that its price is going higher.
He thinks that gold producers appear better positioned to weather an expected recession that’s brought by the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other sectors of the economy. Citing his company’s balance sheets, expectations, and current profitability, he suggests that the price for the precious metal is headed to at least $2,000.
“The industry is probably better positioned than just about any industry to weather this crisis. […] Balance sheets are healthy pretty much across the board. Debt ratios are at a fraction of the average for the S&P 500. Financially, they’re in very good shape.”
What is more, gold producers went through a period of “belt-tightening” and debt-reduction when the price of gold crashed several years ago. Since then, however, gold has risen back above the all-in sustaining costs for the majority of producers, according to the report.
“At $1,600, all of these companies are generating a lot of cash, even though the shutdowns.” – Said Foster.
This article was first published on: Apr 9, 2020
