While gold moved above $1,220 per ounce Thursday, that is not comfortably enough removed from $1,180, an area believed to be critical support. Many technical analysts have said that a move below $1,180 for gold means a move a to $1,050 an ounce, which would predictably be a dire scenario for already downtrodden gold miners. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX) lost 55.1% last year. [Gold Miners Could Write-Down Assets]
Tapering, India’s efforts to ameliorate its current account deficit by hiking tariffs on gold and expectations of another strong year ahead for U.S. stocks are giving market observers reason to predict another glum year ahead for bullion. Since GLD debuted in 2004, it has not suffered two consecutive down years. [2014 Could be a Bad Sequel for Gold]
SPDR Gold Shares
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post. Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of GLD and SLV.