Gold trades in the upper half of its consolidation channel above $1,830. Nevertheless, economists at Commerzbank expect the yellow metal to struggle to post further gains in the near-term.

Optimistic gold’s prospects in the medium to long-term

“In his testimony before the Financial Committee of the US House of Representatives, US Fed Chair Powell stressed the ‘unconditional’ willingness of the Fed to curb inflation. This is likely to translate into sizeable rate hikes in the coming months.”

“Our economists expect the Fed to raise interest rates to 4% by the end of the year. However, the Fed rate hikes will choke the economy – we believe the US economy will slide into recession in the coming year – so the Fed will probably not increase interest rates any further than that, and in our opinion is even likely to lower them again towards the middle of next year. We, therefore, remain optimistic about gold’s prospects in the medium to long-term.” 

“Gold is likely to have problems regaining any ground in the short-term.”