Gold Price In The Us Essays - Precious Metals, Inflation, Pricing

Gold Price In The Us The largest demand for gold is in jewelry and investments. Gold is known as a metal that is easily used and has many industrial applications. Since gold is so durable and luxurious, many people invest in jewelry, stocks, and gold bonds. Considering the fact that gold is considered a world-wide valuable good, many economies have gold reserves to help protect themselves in times of need. Nevertheless, factors of supply and demand have contributed to the decrease of the price of gold, which has reached an all time low since 1978. This reduction has raised many concerns in the United States having them weigh the different factors of the price, supply and demand, and consumption that may be affecting the price change. The price change commands attention since gold serves to indicate price stability or inflation. Although, inflation is not as threatening in the United States because it is more industrialized, the bigger fear is facing deflation with our countries gold currency. Gold averaged 294 dollars per ounce in 1998, when at one time the prices were in the mid $400-500 per ounce. Due to fact that gold prices have been so low, Central Banks have threatened to sell their gold inventories fearing that gold is no longer considered the ultimate store of value. Regardless, prices have continued to fluctuate in both directions throughout the year, but it is important to weigh the different variables that are having an effect on the price. There are different factors associated with the supply and demand which have caused prices to decrease. First of all, the record low prices in the past year has caused investors to participate less causing prices to be determined largely on gold's own supply and demand fundamentals and the economic environment. The supply of gold declined by less than 2% during 1998. The price reduction started to impact the mine production by slowing the rate of manufacture growth by the end of 1998. When prices began to weaken, this caused many mines to shut down, leaving low grade ore in the ground. This alone is effecting the mine output and the cost to produce more gold. On the other hand, the sales of gold jewelry are increasing at a record pace, since the economy is strong, there are low gold prices, rising consumption rates, the emergence of new discount chains, television shopping, and electronic chains (Haubrich, Joseph). The growing demand for gold jewelry helped push gold usage in the United Sates to a first time report of 428.4 metric tons in 1998, which is an 18% increase. Since consumption has been driven in the United States, our economy is expanding and consumers are spending more. During the past year, according to the JCK national poll, over 150 independent jewelers support the figures. They found that two-thirds of respondents (68%) said they had a sales increase over the past year, while the other two out of five (38%) claimed to have sales gains of 20% or more. Over all, the immediate gain for jewelry retail due to the lower prices was a 15 % increase. Using the statistics from the Commodity Price Index, for the last 12 months in 1998, it is evident that the second half of the years prices fluctuated. In the first part of 1998, the gold price ranged from $295.90 - 297.49, although it peaked in April reaching to $308.40, which was the highest for the year. The price increase was due to higher demand of consumers and the expansion in investments during that time period, in spite of the fact, prices did not continue to remain as high for the remainder of the year. In fact, the following month of May, dropped another $9.01, having the rate of gold at $299.39. As for the second half of the year, prices still dropped but managed to stay in the low $290's making retailers prosperous. Regardless consumers were happy with the lower prices, many investors and miners have been struggling to feel the same towards the lower rate. Stocks have lost over 90% percent of their investments in gold and have many investors wondering if the value of gold is depreciating. Miners too, are worried about the lower prices considering they have been the major producers of gold in the past and in future markets. The idea that central banks have discussed to sell partial amounts of their gold reserves has investors worried with hopes that demand will not continue to decrease. When evaluating