The major indexes plunged during Thursday’s trading session and that had to have safe haven precious metal investors cheering. The rally in equities stumbled amid fear that a second wave of Coronavirus cases could once again stifle the economy and prevent re-opening as lockdown measures ease.
“There is a flight-to-safety trade going into gold and silver this morning,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior commodities broker with RJO Futures. “This whole equity run [sharply higher in recent weeks]has been kind of a head-scratcher at how fast and quick it got here.”
With the Federal Reserve saying that interest rates will be kept near zero percent didn’t do much to help the U.S. dollar’s case. That, of course, is also feeding into more gains for precious metals.
“The Fed is now committed to keeping interest rates near zero until at least the end of 2022 and using all its tools to support the economy,” an analyst told Kitco via email. “This could translate into further speculative bets and push the rally in equities and corporate debt higher. However, without real economic recovery, the market will have to deal with a more significant challenge, which is debt insolvency. That’s why the disconnect between asset performance and economic fundamentals cannot run forever and investors will need to become more rational with their investment approach.”
Investors looking for an opportunity to purchase gold via ETFs can look at the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD). GLD seeks to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the expenses of the Trust’s operations–the Trust holds gold bars and from time to time, issues baskets in exchange for deposits of gold and distributes gold in connection with redemptions of baskets.
Traders looking to use leverage can look at the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X ETF (NYSEArca: NUGT), which makes an indirect play on the precious metal via gold miners. NUGT seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of either 300% or 300% of the inverse (or opposite), of the performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index.
ETF investors looking to get in on the silver action can look to funds like the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the Aberdeen Standard Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR), two of the largest ETFs backed by holdings of physical silver. For those looking for leverage, they can look to ETFs like the VelocityShares 3x Long Silver ETN Linked to the S&P GSCI Silver Index ER (NasdaqGM: USLV) and the ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSEArca: AGQ).
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.