(Kitco News)- Wall Street and MainStreet both look for gold prices to rally in the week after traders return towork from the long U.S. Labor Day weekend, based on the weekly Kitco News goldsurvey.
Eighteen marketprofessionals took part in the Wall Street survey. Nine respondents, or 50%,called for higher prices, while four, or 22%, said lower. Five respondents, or28%, predicted a sideways market.
Meanwhile, 608 peopleresponded to an online poll. A total of 289 respondents, or 48%, called forgold to rise. Another 222, or 37%, predicted gold would fall. The remaining 97,or 16%, see a sideways market.
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For the trading week nowwinding down, 53% of Wall Street voters and 45% of Main Street respondents werebullish. Around 11 a.m. EDT, Comex December gold was down 0.4% for the week sofar to $1,208.90 an ounce.
Phil Flynn, senior marketanalyst with at Price Futures Group, looks for gold to trade higher since “weare closer to a trade deal and the new Trump sanction threats should bringChina to the table.” Otherwise, the trade spat has tended to underpin the U.S.dollar in recent weeks, which in turn has hurt gold.
However, Adam Button,managing director of ForexLive, sees the trade issue helping gold for adifferent reason. “There are significant risks brewing in the U.S.-China tradewar and that could spark a relief rally in gold on a flight to safety,” Buttonsaid.
Mark Leibovit, editor ofthe VR Gold Letter, said he is bullish by giving gold “the upside the benefitof the doubt, but under $1,172, I'm a bear.”
Charlie Nedoss, seniormarket strategist with LaSalle Futures Group, sees upside potential since the10-day moving average has crossed just above the 20-day average of $1,205.50 anounce.
Adrian Day, chairman andchief executive officer of Adrian Day Asset Management, also said higher.“Notwithstanding the stronger dollar, gold has gained support from the FederalReserve’s emphasis on a ‘gradual’ rate of interest rate increases,” Day said.
Meanwhile, Bob Haberkorn,senior commodities broker with RJO Futures, looks for the metal to pull back asthe market starts to factor in the September meeting of the Federal Open MarketCommittee.
“I’m expecting moredownside,” he said. “We’re that much closer to a Fed announcement. Gold usuallysells off into a Fed meeting and rallies after.”
Richard Baker, editor of the Eureka MinerReport, also sees more weakness in gold. He pointed out that gold andthe Chinese yuan have moved in lock-step since mid-April.
“I expect it likely thatgold will pull back to $1,200 per ounce next week...,” Baker said. “Embattledsilver, with a gold-to-silver ratio now above 82.5, will fall into$14.50-per-ounce territory.”
Jim Wyckoff, seniortechnical analyst with Kitco, looks for a choppy but sideways market.
“While there are chartclues the market has hit a near-term bottom, the bulls don’t have the technicalstrength to maintain a price uptrend,” Wyckoff said.
Independent technicalanalyst Darin Newsom is also looking for a sideways market in the near term,assuming gold does not close higher above $1,213.30 an ounce for this week. Aclose below this would suggest further sideways consolidation, he said.
“I don’t think there is a lot of bullish momentumgrowing yet in gold,” Newsom said. “Much of that has to do with the continuedmajor long-term downtrend on its monthly chart. Major support remains at theDecember 2016 low of $1,124.30.”
By Allen SykoraFor Kitco News
Follow @AllenSykora