The 'opportunity of a lifetime' may unfold for gold and silver this week, amid Middle East tensions

By Myra P. Saefong

The opportunity for investors to buy gold and silver at cheaper prices may unfold this week, an analyst said following Iran's drone and missile attacks on Israel over the weekend .

The escalation of unprecedented tension between Iran and Israel is going to "show up in the markets as fear," said Peter Spina, founder and president of investor websites GoldSeek.com and SilverSeek.com.

If there is a major financial market selloff - "a liquidity event," there could be some spillover into precious metals, Spina said. A selloff in the stock market can, as it has in the past, lead investors to seek out ways to cover their losses, including a sale of their precious-metals holdings.

"This could be a buying opportunity of a lifetime for precious metals," said Spina. "The gold price is reflecting all sorts of problems, risks, and now the fear-war premium will likely be added should there be no quick de-escalation to these very serious events in the Middle East."

For now, Spina said he expects both oil and precious metals to have "strong opening trades with good buying support, unless there is a sudden change in the trajectory of events."

"Price volatility will be high as markets attempt to assess the situation," he said. Shanghai will likely set the first price for gold given that it's the first major precious metals physical hub to trade as the week begins.

But precious metals were mixed kicking off Monday's session. June gold futures (GC00) were down 40 cents at $2,373.80 an ounce, nudging towards a new high, while May silver (SI00) was up 23 cents, or 0.8%, to $28.58 an ounce.

On Comex Friday, gold and silver eked out only modest gains, though gold managed to notch a fresh record-high settlement. Gold settled at $2,374.10 an ounce, up $1.40, or nearly 0.1%, on Friday, while silver added 8 cents, or 0.3%, to end at $28.33 an ounce.

-Myra P. Saefong

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04-15-24 0231ET

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