Golden Slump:
Gold fell 1% Tuesday as markets slumped as well. It is not acting as the buffer it once did in times past. One has to contemplate if the precious metal can not behave in this type of environment when will it? We wrote about it this weekend in our WEEK AHEAD Note and it is now pressing toward the lower end of the tight range between 1900-2000 which it has done on the MONTHLY chart since March. A pierce underneath 1900 could send this spiraling lower toward the 1600 or 1700 area that it did the last time it backed away from the very round 2000 number in 2020 and 2022. Gold miners have been a drag on the materials sector as a whole as it holds onto a fractional YTD gain going into Q4. But it has not been as much of a weight as aluminum in 2023 as AA has been abysmal. Since touching almost 100 in 2022 it has spiraled lower and just broke below a bear flag pivot which carries a measured move to 22.