The relationship between gold, copper and the US10YFirst, can you tell me what you think the relationship between these two curves is? Clearly, these two curves have a strong negative correlation, meaning they move exactly opposite to each other. You can see in the image that their behavior is like a mirror image (from 2007 to before 2022).
You are familiar with the gold-to-copper ratio, right? Now, when this gold-to-copper ratio curve rises, it means that gold is giving better returns compared to copper. This indicates that the global economy is moving away from growth and heading toward a recession. Investors, instead of investing in production (where copper symbolizes production), choose to invest in a safe haven like gold. The opposite happens when this curve goes down.
The lower curve represents the yield on long-term U.S. bonds. When this curve is rising, it means that the supply of bonds is greater than the demand. People are selling bonds, which causes the bond yield to rise. When the curve is falling, it means people are buying bonds, which causes the bond yield to drop.
Why do these two curves move in opposite directions?
Now, let’s get to the main question. The answer to this question is simple: bonds, like gold, serve as a safe haven for investors. When the economy moves toward a recession (when gold offers better returns than copper, and the gold-to-copper ratio is rising), some investors shift towards bonds, and the yield curve drops. That’s why these two curves move in opposite directions.
To summarize the entire story: Movement toward recession = investors moving toward gold and bonds = rise in the gold-to-copper ratio and drop in bond yield curve.
Now it’s clear why these two curves move opposite to each other. The big surprise is coming👇
Since the beginning of 2022, the historical trend has changed. These two curves have started to show a positive correlation! Meaning, everything I mentioned above has gone out the window! Now, the question is: What suddenly happened? There are several analyses, but I believe what changed is that U.S. bonds are no longer a safe haven for investors, as they once were (the same fear signal I mentioned earlier). In fact, after the pandemic, the world has never been the same. This is an important development and it affects many things. I’ve addressed this topic from various perspectives before, and here’s a new angle on it.
For the past two to three years, contrary to the historical trend, investors have been buying gold but selling bonds, and these two curves have been rising together.
As you can see, the analytical situation has changed drastically compared to, say, 10 years ago, and many fundamental facts have shifted. For instance, many people expect the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and gold to go up again, but after an initial short shock, the story will probably reverse.
#Gold #XAUUSD #HG1!
