Is Gold Rebounding?

Link: Major players in the hedge fund world and many analysts expect gold prices to increase about 15% in the next year.

BusinessWeek reports that gold prices are expected to rise. Perhaps the money created to rescue governments deeply in debt will give precious metals a boost. As for hedge funds, watch what they do, not what they say in press releases.

Link: Money Report - BusinessWeek.

George Soros has helped drive up gold prices by more than doubling his bet in a market even he calls a "bubble." Soros Fund Management, which oversees about $25 billion, increased its investment in SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world's largest exchange-traded fund for gold, by 152% in the fourth quarter, a Feb. 16 Securities & Exchange Commission filing shows. Goldman Sachs (GS), Barclays Capital (BCS), and HSBC Holdings all predict more gains in gold before any bubble bursts.

Goldman expects the metal, trading around $1,113 an ounce, to hit $1,235 in three months and $1,380 in 12 months.

HSBC says it may peak at $1,300 this year.

While prices have fallen 8.2% since reaching a record $1,226 on Dec. 3, 15 of 22 analysts in a Bloomberg survey see gold reaching a new high, with the median forecast predicting a 15% advance to as much as $1,300 an ounce in 2010. Gold is up about 22% in the past 12 months and the same amount since the start of the third quarter, when Soros accumulated 2.44 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust.

By Nicholas Larkin and Pham-Duy Nguyen