Looking for a Turn in Gold from $1140

Has Gold’s price action been getting you down lately? Take heart, since relief could come as early as today or tomorrow in the form of a Hidden Pivot support at exactly $1140.10.  For the last two weeks, that’s been our downside target for the correction begun five weeks ago from around $1266, although it didn’t begin to emerge with clarity until the August Comex contract plunged from $1208 right after the July 4th holiday weekend. (You can get a week’s worth of free forecasts and access to the 24/7 chat room by clicking here.)  At yesterday’s lows, the correction so far had knocked 8% off the price of gold relative to the all-time high recorded on June 21. Even though we’d been expecting this weakness, we told subscribers at the outset that we didn’t foresee anything more serious developing.

A Hidden Pivot support at 1140.10 has the potential to end Gold's five-week correction

Although we avoid chiseling such predictions in stone, we’ve advised cautious bottom-fishing near $1140, using a tight stop-loss of $2 or less. Our confidence is high that there will be a tradable bounce from the target, although a decisive breach would be the equivalent of the groundhog seeing his shadow – i.e., six more weeks (or so) of winter.  Please note that we’ve identified a secondary target at 1155.00 that may have been fulfilled by yesterday’s 1156.90 low.  However, our gut feeling is that this Hidden Pivot support will fail, sending the August contract down to the more important one at 1140.10.

T-Bonds Turning?

Speaking of targets, a T-Bond forecast (and trading recommendation) disseminated to subscribers on Sunday night caught yesterday’s low in the September futures to the exact tick. We’d been quite bullish on the bond futures but told subscribers not to buy any contracts until the “Seps” corrected down to 126^07. (Click here to see the actual recommendation.)  We backed off the trade when the futures failed to hit 126^07 on the first pass yesterday morning, but the support itself appears to be holding. If so, a surge in the Bonds could portend the flight of capital from stocks over the near term. For that reason, we’ll reevaluate our 10757 target in the Dow – 220 point above current levels – if T-Bonds and shares diverge sharply today with the former going higher.

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  • Bob Wo July 30, 2010, 1:11 pm

    I just read a very interesting article that suggests the bullion banks orchestrated the recent sudden drop in the gold price a day prior to gold options expiry, thus saving their buddies from having to pay out on multi-$millions of ‘in-the-money’ call options. Looking back a few months, this seems a regular occurrence – any views on this..?

  • FranSix July 29, 2010, 2:28 am

    Something people might have missed in 2003, simply because they weren’t looking for it, were negative repo rates.
    Now considering that swap agreements are repos and that ‘failures to deliver,’ a common knowledge term without ambiguity, there must be moribund pile of failures to deliver out there that need clearing, so the solution is to agree on swaps.
    The banks will now have a way of clearing a vast pile of derivatives should interest rates go into the negative and a policy on negative interest rates on repos or a sojourn of the discount rate into the negative is coming.

    http://www.ny.frb.org/research/current_issues/ci10-5/ci10-5.html

    Now, gold leases are often in the negative, so if rates go below lease rates, then this means a collapse in the face value of leases while the gold price goes higher. I would speculate that swap arrangements are being conducted right now, and that clearing of years of accumulation of failures to deliver is about to commence.

  • BJ July 28, 2010, 8:35 pm

    Rick, Your 1140.10 appears in my work, to be significant support, perhaps rivaling Feb 5, 2010,weekly close of 1058.00.
    As Ed Hart,use to say,we shall know…”In the fullness of time!”
    Keep up your good work. BJ

  • Keith July 28, 2010, 8:03 pm

    Gary, [Has anyone mentioned the scare over inflation lately?]

    Nope, not really. Which means we are ripe for some unexpected rise in prices. Besides, I wouldn’t say there is no inflation out there. It’s showing up in the stock market imo.

  • gary leibowitz July 28, 2010, 7:51 pm

    Talking about a wedge the SP500 looking real good for a breakout/down from a recent wedge.

    Miomentum should buid from this breakout.

    If the market falls hard from here, not expected by most analysts, I wonder just how well Gold reacts. I am still in the camp that says gold will fall hard once equities rolls over.

    Has anyone mentioned the scare over inflation lately? I find it strange how so many people accept a protracted low inflation envireonment given it’s 18 months after the debacle. I would love to hear the discussion 18 months ago from the very same analysts that accept this trend as a new bull run. I would bet they all thought inflation would be a problem right around now. i also would bet they all thought we would have a heated economy from all that stimulus.

    Maybe I am jaded but I still say we are in a dangerous position.

  • S David July 28, 2010, 2:52 am

    I have come to rely on your HP’s, Rick, but a breakdown from an ascending wedge on the weekly chart extending back to March of 2008 shouldn’t be taken lightly.

    I’ll be a buyer at the levels you suggest. I’ll short it to death if it fails.