Take Your Pick: 2012 Gold, $2000 or $1300?

Gold futures plummeted on the back of the Federal Reserve's comments at its FOMC meeting, last Tuesday. The Federal Reserve released its last FOMC statement of the year last Tuesday, which reversed a decent rally in the Dow Industrial Index, and also caused precious metals to move lower in the days following. The cause for this risk-off trade was because the Fed did not hint at more quantitative easing. The Fed pointed out that inflation has moderated since earlier this year, and that long-term inflation expectations are stable. The Fed ended its inflation commentary, saying that they expect inflation to settle at an acceptable level and will pay attention to changes in inflation expectations going forward. Without hints at a new quantitative easing program and comments about inflation, risky assets across the board sold off. Gold fell over $35 per ounce after the 2:15 p.m. announcement, and even more in the days following. Benzinga Professional covered the events in real-time, so subscribers could take advantage. Over the last few weeks, major banks have released their outlook for gold in 2012. Barclay's targets gold at $2000 per ounce in 2012 and UBS expects gold to trade to $2050 per ounce. Both targets are approximately 5% above the all-time highs of $1923.70 per ounce. Goldman Sachs's target on the precious metal for 2012 is at $1810, which is about 6% off all-time highs. Benzinga reached out to precious metals analyst and trader Marty McNeill at R.F. Lafferty for his take on the outlook of gold. “We expect Europe to announce some sort of quantitative easing in 2012,” McNeill said. “Currently, we are just seeing a minor consolidation in gold. As hedge funds return to the market in January, we will likely see it trade over $1800 per ounce in 2012, however, it will take time for gold to move higher.” Going against the grain, on December 15th, Benzinga spoke with Brian LaRose, technical analyst at United-ICAP, who believes gold could continue its fall, even to the $1300s per ounce level. "Commodities and Equities are sitting at a critical juncture," LaRose said. "The S&P 500, Gold, WTI Crude are sitting at major support levels and the U.S. Dollar is sitting at major resistance. We could see a short-term turn higher in risk assets, however, I believe it will be just corrective in nature." LaRose concluded, "Ideally the U.S. Dollar holds above 79.700, before continuing its rally higher to 84.000-85.000. If this happens, most riskier assets like commodities and equities will suffer a severe pull back. Gold could easily sink to $1425, even 1300 and WTI Crude could fall all the way to $64."

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