Over the past 10 years, January has typically been the best month for gold. However, Low said that is not necessarily true in the post-pandemic era when countries are still struggling. He pointed out that while recent data shows that Chinese gold demand has been strong over the past 12 months, some US factors could hold back gold prices this month. Investors are still looking at the hawkish factors at the US central bank’s final policy meeting of the year, he said. The revelation that the Fed will slow its pace of rate cuts this year has put the US dollar in a good position, which is not very positive for the precious metal.
Another issue Low noted was that the technical outlook for the yellow metal had deteriorated somewhat over the past week. He observed that prices had fallen below the 100-day moving average for the first time in more than a year. Although prices have rebounded in subsequent sessions on the back of buying from investors, he noted that this is also a negative sign for gold.