The Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDXJ), which tracks smaller gold miners, is up more than 18% over the past month. With investors favoring safe-haven assets, a sentiment that is bolstering gold prices, GDXJ and rival gold miners exchange traded funds may not be done soaring.
After plunging past their financial crisis lows on waning Chinese demand and concerns over a rising rate environment, mining stocks are seeing their biggest rally since 2008, Bloomberg reports.
Supporting the downtrodden sector, the U.S. dollar has quickly weakened. The greenback is being weighed down on speculation that ongoing uncertainty may force the Federal Reserve to refrain from hiking interest rates in the near future. Consequently, a weaker USD makes alternative assets like metals more attractive. [U.S. Dollar ETF Falls Below Long-Term Trend]
“This one-year daily chart of GDXJ, above, is interesting, as the turn to the upside has been developing for months. The chart of GDXJ bottomed in July, as the broader stock market weakened,” according to TheStreet.com. “The On-Balance-Volume (OBV) line moved mostly sideways, but turned up clearly from mid-January. Since July, there has been a bullish divergence between the price action and a rising momentum study — note the higher lows in July, November, and then January. Also, prices are now above both the 50-day and the 200-day moving averages.”
Gold is seeing greater support from safe-haven demand after currency devaluations across Asia added to investment demand for a better store of value than paper currencies or stocks and bonds.