It has been a rough seven weeks for gold, with the precious metal falling 12 percent during that period to end last week at $1,154 an ounce.
Signs of economic strength, such as the January and February jobs reports; speculation about when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates; and the soaring dollar have weighed on the precious metal.
But some experts believe a rebound is coming for gold. Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine, is one of them.
Negative bond yields in Europe will likely push gold up to $1,400 this year,
he said in a recent webcast. The idea is that sub-zero yields will send some bond investors to gold.
Jeffrey Nichols, a senior economic advisor at Rosland Capital,
told CNNMoney he expects volatile movement for gold over the next few months. But ultimately gold should rise, he said.
A growing middle class in China and India, the No. 1 and No. 2 consumers of gold respectively, will boost demand there, Nichols said.
"It's only a matter of time before gold turns around," he said. "Gold should climb to a much higher price over the next three to five years thanks to physical demand from emerging markets."
Strangely enough, Apple may soon provide some support for gold. The company could need large amounts of the commodity for its 18-carat luxury version of the Apple Watch,
CNBC reports.
Each gold watch could include two ounces of gold, experts estimate. That means Apple may be a buyer of 746 metric tons of gold a year, equivalent to about one-third of annual global mine supply, according to bullion dealer GoldCore.
Experts estimate that Apple has ordered between 5 million to 6 million watches. And the gold edition is thought to account for one-sixth of the total, GoldCore research director Mark O'Byrne wrote in a commentary obtained
by CNBC.
To be sure, with a price of $4,000 estimated as a minimum for the gold version, Apple may have trouble selling 1 million, O'Byrne said.
Related Stories:
© 2024 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.