Gold price sees worst week in 11 months, but is the market oversold?

5.16.22 - Worries and Rates Rise as Markets Drop

Gold last traded at $1,823 an ounce. Silver at $21.60 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Monday on bargain-hunting and a flat dollar. U.S. stocks attempted to rebound from a relentless six week sell-off that's punished tech stocks and pushed the S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market.

KITCO--The gold market is looking to close the week down around 4%, its worst weekly close since mid-June 2021....

Gold was hurt by technical selling pressure after dropping below the $1,830 an ounce Thursday, which served as support. The precious metals also suffered from higher U.S. dollar and expectations of an aggressive Federal Reserve following hotter-than-expected inflation data.

June Comex gold futures were last at $1,809.90 an ounce, down more than $70 on the week.

'We've seen the CPI come in stronger than expected this week. The 8.3% pace in April is problematic, especially after markets were expecting 8.1%. That automatically told us that the Federal Reserve would not soften its hawkish stance,' TD Securities head of global strategy Bart Melek told Kitco News. 'It's unlikely that inflation will come off sharply any time soon.'

This outlook has weighed on gold and the precious metal moved significantly lower. 'The $1,830 was good support, but we breached it. Now, $1,790 is the next support level as gold consolidates,' Melek said.

Gold was also used this week for liquidity purposes amid a massive selloff in U.S. equities, with the S&P 500 falling 18% since the end of December.

'Gold's decline is investors covering losses elsewhere. Liquidation for traders and investors to make up for major losses seen in equity markets. Gold is one of the easiest things to convert into cash when times are tough,' Gainesville Coins precious metals expert Everett Millman said Friday....

'Even with elevated downside risk, we still can get back above $1,900 in a matter of weeks. Traders need to widen gold's range due to the side effect of heightened volatility.'"