The prices of gold reached a six-week record today. Analysts believe that Fed's easing of monetary policy and introduction of additional stimulus measures from the US Congress contributed to this.

During the late evening of December 17, February futures were traded for gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $ 1,889.60 an ounce. Gold futures for February delivery increased by 1.7% to $ 1,890.40 an ounce starting from Thursday until today, December 18. Experts consider this to be the highest level recorded since November 6 this year.

Today, gold trading in pairs with the US dollar, tries not to slow down. The XAU/USD pair moves around $ 1884 per ounce. According to analysts, gold took its chance to rise amid the dollar's weakness, declining real yields on US government bonds and growing inflation risks caused by the Fed's soft monetary policy.

Brien Lundin, currency strategist at Gold Newsletter, observed that the Fed's December meeting for the past five years has often become the starting point of the rally in the prices of precious metals. Analyst emphasizes that this primarily applies to gold. As a rule, the rally of precious metals, which started at the end of the current year, continues in the next one.

Experts enumerated the key drivers to the growth of gold's prices. These include the US dollar's clear downward movement, Fed's continued soft monetary policy, and a number of new stimulating measures in the US, whose target is to increase unemployment benefits and support small businesses. At the same time, one-time payments are provided for those citizens who find it difficult to find work. American lawmakers are busy preparing a program of this financial assistance in the amount of $ 900 billion. Based on preliminary information, this package will include direct payments per citizen in the amount of $ 600, and $ 325 billion to support small businesses.

In fact, gold gained huge popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many investors actively invested in this metal and continue to do so until now. Market participants bet on the precious metal, considering this asset a reliable guarantee against the depreciation of national currencies. The negative forecasts for 2021 for the US dollar also contributed to this. Many analysts are sure that the USD will remain under pressure next year and will drop another 10%. Fearing such a scenario, investors are massively turning to the yellow metal, which is not afraid of inflation risks. The specialists consider precious metals to be the most important instrument for hedging market volatility and protection against negative interest rates.

According to current forecasts, gold prices are expected to reach $ 2,000 per ounce in 2021. This optimism is supported by the conclusions of experts, who called gold as one of the most profitable assets of the current year. Moreover, gold is expected to appreciate due to different factors such as rising inflation expectations, weakening US dollar, and growing demand for investment. Experts believe that the decline in US government bond yields and negative interest rates will give an advantage to the precious metal. They concluded that the combination of these conditions will increase its popularity for investors in 2021.