NEW YORK – Uncertainty ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election and a possible U.S. interest rate hike in December have boosted demand for gold and silver in the United States, dealers said.
Gold is a traditional safe-haven market, which investors flock to in times of uncertainty. Several analysts have forecast that gold prices will rally if Republican Donald Trump wins the Tuesday election, while they could rise to a lesser degree or even fall if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins.
“The uncertainty about the election and … whether they’re going to raise rates is causing the buying in gold,” said Walter Pehowich, executive vice president in charge of precious metals investments services for Dillon Gage Metals, a major precious metals dealer based in Dallas.
Since mid-September, Dillon Gage’s gold sales have jumped around 10 percent and silver sales by 5.7 percent, Pehowich said on Monday. Dillon Gage has not seen a jump in sales like this since September 2015, when prices fell to multiyear lows and gold sales surged 22 percent and silver sales jumped 13 percent from three months prior.
“Prior to mid-September, we had actually witnessed a decline in sales, so the tide has certainly reversed,” Pehowich said, adding that Dillon Gage was bracing for market volatility after the election.
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