BMO raises price forecast for Gold, Silver

UNITED KINGDOM May 13 2016 11:16 AM    

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): BMO  Capital Markets has raised its price forecasts for gold and silver , and said  the yellow metal to exit the year around $1,400 an ounce and silver around $21  an ounce.

With its higher forecasts for the metals, bank analysts also  hiked price targets for shares of gold- and silver-mining companies by an  average of 24%.

“The more constructive (gold-silver) view is predicated  on uncertainty in the global economy persisting through the remainder of this  year, driving incremental safe-haven demand,” analyst at BMO noted.

“We  focus a lot on China for commodities, and in our view the excess capacity built  up over the last 10 years continues to be a drag on global industry and prices.  In other words, what’s bad for base-metals demand is good for gold and silver,”  analyst added.

BMO also commented that the gold market is factoring in  little probability of a U.S. rate hike through July, so the question facing the  market is whether the Federal Reserve lifts again by year-end.