Good afternoon, dear colleagues. On Wednesday, September 16, the US Fed will announce its decision on the monetary policy that will determine the dynamics of financial markets at least until the end of this year, and possibly for a longer period of time. After the summary is published, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference, during which he will explain the essence of new decisions, comment on the forecasts and opinions of the Committee members on the development of the economic situation in the United States, and answer questions asked by journalists. The Open Market Committee meeting is always an element of surprise. However, it is already possible to assume with a high degree of probability what decisions will be made and what time the Fed's chair will choose in his comments.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the US economy has faced an unprecedented number of challenges. The number of virus cases is approaching 7 million. People who died from the virus totaled more than 200 thousand. In July, a daily increase of confirmed cases was over 70 thousand. In September, the indicator significantly dropped. For example, on September 15, the US reported on 36,447 new cases that is still well above the reading of the first wave.Picture 1: US new COVID-19 cases
Picture 1: US new COVID-19 cases
Let's take a look at the economic damage made by the coronavirus pandemic. During the first two months of the recession, the US economy lost 22 million jobs that accounts for about 15% of the US participation rate. Later, the unemployment rate dropped by 8.4%, but it still twice exceeds the pre-crisis level.
The US fiscal year ends in two weeks, on October 1, with the soaring budget deficit. Official figures show a deficit of $3 trillion, whereas according to unofficial data, the budget deficit exceeded $4 trillion. The deficit is really large as spending exceeds $6 trillion, and half of these expenses are covered by new borrowing. This year, the US GDP will barely exceed $20 trillion, so the budget deficit to GDP will be at least 15%, which has not been seen since the Second World War.
Under these circumstances, the main creditor of the US government is the Federal Reserve System, which has more than 4.4 trillion in Treasury bonds and bills on its balance sheet. At the same time, despite some improvement in economic indicators, the economic recovery is slower than expected. Most of the $2.3 trillion in state aid has already been spent, and new programs are lost in the corridors of Congress and the US presidential administration and cannot be accepted. At the same time, Powell and other Fed's officials have repeatedly stated that the damage from the coronavirus pandemic will be difficult to overcome without new support measures.
In this regard, we can assume several obvious steps that the Fed may take. Most likely, we will talk about new benchmarks for inflation expectations and maintaining rates at zero values until 2023. In addition, the press conference may specify additional measures to support small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the use of the bond purchase program even when the recession ends.
In the face of a rapid increase in the US dollar mass, low interest rates, loans secured by collateral of low quality, as well as the lack of accumulation tools, the stock market and gold are likely to continue to grow. In fact, the Fed will not be able to move to a neutral monetary policy right now. This will cause the stock market collapse. Americans have always been sensitive to the decline in the value of their assets, and now even more. Of course, a 10% drop will not particularly bother anyone and will be used to buy at more favorable prices, but this is only possible under favorable monetary conditions, which, in my opinion, will be announced today by the US Federal Open Market Committee.
However, the gold market situation has a number of fundamental differences from the situation on the stock market. While private investors from Asia and Russia prefer to invest in physical gold, investors from the United States and European countries invest in various exchange traded funds - ETFs, which are the main source of demand for the precious metal at the moment.
Demand for investment in gold using ETFs is breaking records this year (figure 2). These instruments have never been so popular, and their accumulated total volume of gold exceeded 3,824 tons. At the same time, the volume of gold consumed for technological purposes, coins, bars and by the jewelry industry has fallen sharply this year. In fact, the main drivers of the gold price now are ETFs that invest in gold as well as central banks. According to the US Fed's, the value of gold will increase in the long term, at least in the coming years.
Picture 2: Monthly flows into gold-backed exchange traded funds
There is another very interesting feature in the modern dynamics of gold. For many years, the Commitments of Traders Report (COT) has played an invaluable role in making forecasts. However, in the past six months, the increase in the cost of maintaining a position on the COMEX - CME exchange has led to the fact that traders from the Money Manager group, who are the main buyers, have been reducing their long positions since March of this year. During this time, the price of gold increased from 1,670 to the value of 1,960 dollars, and the total positions of the Money Manager group decreased from 269 to 155 thousand buy contracts. In other words, against the background of rising prices, speculators left the market, which is very unusual. This reduces the value of the COT report for predicting the direction of the gold price in the short and medium term. Speculators ' activity may have been affected by the cost of maintaining a futures position, but those who use this report should consider this point.
Now many investors and traders are wondering whether gold will be cheaper and whether it is worth buying it now. In my opinion, from a technical point of view, now is a good time to buy gold. Gold is in an increasing long-term, medium-term and short-term trend. The consolidation that we could see during July-August is a support for the price, which may soon take an attempt to test the resistance zone of $2,070 - $2,100. At the bottom, there are supports at $1,910 and $1,800, which can be followed by a stop order if the target is 2,100, 2,300 and 2,500 (Picture 3)
Picture 3: Technical analysis of Gold
From both technical and fundamental points of view, an increase in the price of gold is too obvious. Many years spent on the market have taught me that obvious pictures are often not realized or implemented in the way we would like them to be. Therefore, the rules of money management are above all for us. Do not forget that no one knows the future, we can only assume this or that event with a certain probability.