GDX

The Week

GDX lost 3.09% this week to close at $99.65, while the S&P 500 added 0.49%, leaving the ETF roughly 3.58 percentage points behind the benchmark. The weekly range was 6.71%, with an intraday high of $105.67 that was fully retraced. Monday saw a soft open as chip-sector weakness spilled into gold miners. Tuesday bounced to the week’s high, then Wednesday pulled back and Thursday stabilised before Friday’s sharp, high-volume sell-off: 41.1m shares changed hands, the heaviest volume of the week, and the ETF closed near the low of $98.69.

Sector News

Gold miners tracked macro sentiment closely this week. US-Canada trade tensions escalated midweek as Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on US$20bn of American goods, briefly supporting gold miners through haven demand. After the PCE inflation print came in roughly in line, gold miners fell in step. The Jackson Hole symposium dominated the back half of the week. New Fed chair Kevin Warsh repeatedly highlighted inflation risks and hinted at near-term rate hikes, and the market’s repricing of rate expectations weighed on the sector. Among the names in the news, Gold Fields lifted shareholder returns with a $1.01 dividend after earnings jumped on higher prices, Agnico Eagle announced a C$57m strategic investment in Radisson to back its underground exploration, and heavyweights Newmont and Anglogold Ashanti both retreated on Friday.

The Week Ahead

A dense macro calendar starts Monday with Dallas Fed manufacturing, followed by S&P Global and ISM manufacturing PMIs plus JOLTS job openings on Tuesday, and ADP private payrolls and factory orders on Wednesday. For gold miners, the strength of manufacturing and labour-market data will shape expectations for the Fed’s rate path, which in turn feeds into the relative appeal of gold as a zero-yield asset. The rate-hike question left open by Jackson Hole remains unresolved, and whether Warsh’s hawkish tone finds support in real-economy data will be a key swing factor for the ETF in the coming week.

In Short

The week’s decline took place near record highs. The close is still above both the 20-day average at 92.847 and the 60-day average at 82.182, so the longer uptrend is not yet broken, but Friday’s heavy-volume pullback shows short-term selling pressure building. On the macro side, the PCE data did not clear away rate-hike worries, and Jackson Hole added a hawkish twist. In the latest session’s flow snapshot, large and medium orders were both net sellers while small orders were modest net buyers, pointing to cautious behaviour among dominant players near the highs. Whether the ETF can hold around its 20-day average will likely depend on how next week’s data shifts expectations for Fed policy and, in turn, the willingness of money to rotate back into gold miners.

This article is generated by LongbridgeAI from market data, for information only and not investment advice.