Gold Bulls Hang Tough for Best Year Since `10 Amid Fed Rate Push

(Bloomberg) -- Gold bulls weathered rising U.S. interest rates, record-high equity markets and an improving global economy to push the metal to its best year since 2010.

Bullion futures on the Comex in New York jumped 13 percent in 2017 for a second straight annual gain. Other measures of the metal also defied the interest-rate odds: Holdings in exchange-traded funds backed by bullion advanced for a second year, as did the net-long position in the metal held by hedge funds and other large speculators. 

Gold benefited as declines in the dollar fueled demand for alternative assets, while geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over the impact of a new U.S. tax plan boosted the appeal of havens. That helped cushion the blow from a surge in equities and the Fed’s campaign to tighten monetary policy, which can make non-interest-bearing assets such as gold less competitive. 

The longest run of gains in 18 months sent gold past the 100-day moving average this week, which for some chart watchers positions it for further gains heading into 2018.

“Next year, it might not get the benefit of a dollar as weak as it was in 2017, but I think it will do well despite that,” Marty McGuire, managing director of market strategy at TJM Investments LLC, said by telephone.

Gold rose 0.9 percent to $1,309.30 an ounce on Friday, closing out the year with a seventh straight daily gain that was the longest rally since June 2016.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Richter in New York at jrichter1@bloomberg.net, Joe Deaux in New York at jdeaux@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Joe Richter, Stephen Cunningham

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