An ounce of gold sets a historical record at $2,265

Updated Monday, April 1, 2024-13:48

The

troy ounce of gold,

a safe haven asset par excellence, pierced its all-time highs this Monday, rising 1.5% and standing at $2,265 in a context marked by PCE inflation in the United States and the statements of the president of the Reserve Federal (Fed),

Jerome Powell,

in which he pointed out that the disinflationary process needs to be consolidated before making the first cut in interest rates.

According to market data consulted by Europa Press, the ounce of gold reached this new historical maximum around 06:00 Spanish time, although at noon the increases in the precious metal moderated to 1.1%, reaching the 2,254 dollars.

This movement in the price of gold occurs after last Friday it became known that

PCE inflation in the United States

- one of the macroeconomic references most followed by the Fed when evaluating its monetary policy - rose one tenth in February, up to 2.5%, while the underlying rate moderated another tenth, to 2.8%.

In his usual discursive line, the president of the Fed, Jerome Powell, commented on the matter that "there is no need to be in a hurry" to cut interest rates and focused, according to Banca March experts, on the resilience of the economy. American economy and the strength of the labor market as assets to give the monetary authority more time to take the first step.

So far this year, gold has accumulated a revaluation of almost 10%, although the advances have been especially concentrated in this recently ended month of March - with a rise of 9% - to the sound of the statements and movements of the central banks regarding when and with what intensity interest rates will arrive.

In that sense,

gold has broken its historical highs for several days in March

as it approached and finally surpassed the level of $2,200; a trend that now continues into the beginning of April.

On the other hand, Schroders' investment director,

Matthew Michael

, drew attention this Monday in a report to the "significant" fact that gold prices have ignored the rise in real interest rates. "It seems that we have entered an era of deglobalization and geopolitical bifurcation that has significantly reinforced the role of gold as a reserve asset," Michael pointed out as a new paradigm for the price of gold.

The upward movements of the ounce of gold in recent weeks have surprised the market after the carousel of central bank meetings - the vast majority have left rates unchanged - especially in line with the Fed's turn.

This is because gold is quoted in dollars, so if the 'price of money' (interest rates) remains high, the price of the metal should devalue and vice versa, according to classical theory.

In that sense, Julius Baer's investment director,

Yves Bonzon

, focused two weeks ago on the difficulty in explaining

the current strength of gold

since none of the traditional drivers of gold prices - the US dollar, yields realism of US bonds and investor risk aversion - is currently in place.

Therefore, he noted that real investment demand in gold, reflected in holdings of physically backed investment products, has not kept pace with rising prices, suggesting that "the speculative position in the futures market is driving rising prices, thus questioning the durability of the current episode.

The price of gold resurfaced strongly due to the return to the foreground of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while since last October 7 - the day of the attack by the Islamist Hamas militia on Israeli territory - the metal has accumulated a revaluation of more than 20 %.

In this way, driven by geopolitical risks and

massive purchasing by central banks,

gold reached a new level in early December for its historical records above $2,100.

Prior to that bullish streak last fall, the last time gold traded above $2,000 was in May 2023 due to the tension in the Ukrainian conflict and the shocks derived from the US regional banking crisis, as well as the Credit Suisse bankruptcy last March, so that its value reached a value of $2,063 at the beginning of May.

However, the previous all-time high for gold - prior to last December 2023 - occurred on March 7, 2022, when the ounce touched $2,075, beginning two weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, it was also around those levels in August 2020 after the outbreak of the pandemic.