Week Ahead Commodity Report: Gold, Silver & Crude Oil Price Forecast: 24 - 28 February 2020 [Video]
|Gold prices soared within striking distance of $1700 an ounce on Monday – their highest level since February 2013, as rising Coronavirus fears sparked a rush for safe-havens.
The total number of people infected around the world climbed to more than 80,000 on Monday, across 30 countries. Italy now has the highest number of Coronavirus infections outside Asia, with 54 new cases reported in the country's northern region on Sunday, bringing the total to 283.
Elsewhere, over the weekend G-20 policy makers from the world’s largest economies announced that the fast-spreading virus is a major risk, which threatens to inflict a prolonged global economic slowdown.
The disruption comes at a fraught time for policy makers, who are struggling to find new ways to boost global economic growth when many of them are already operating with record-low interest rates, limiting their ability to provide stimulus through monetary policy.
In Asia, much of China’s economy still remains idle as authorities try to contain the epidemic, whilst millions of companies across the country face the risk of collapse.
Economists predict, if China fails to contain the virus in the first quarter, a vast number of businesses could go under. Such an event, in the world's second largest economy will have catastrophic repercussions on economies around the world – heightening the possibility of another global financial crisis.
Fears over the virus outbreak triggered a wide sell-off in equity markets on Monday, with global stocks losing over $1.7 trillion of value in a single day. That’s one of the biggest daily declines in history, since September 2008.
Elsewhere, the curve inversion between the 3-month and 10-year U.S bond yields deepened, in what economists view as a recession signal. A yield curve inversion, where longer-term yields fall below those on short-term notes, has preceded every recession of the past 50 years, so it has become a must-watch indicator for traders.
Where are commodity prices heading next? Watch Phil Carr at The Gold & Silver Club review Gold, Silver and Crude Oil with the latest price forecast and predictions:
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