Middle-Week Screening: Gold Glitters and Shines!

Overview and trends

US stocks rose on Monday as investors looked to major earnings on deck this week and awaited the release of the GOP’s coronavirus stimulus plan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally said that Republicans were ready to present their long-awaited $1 trillion COVID-19 package details, as Democrats remained wary. S&P 500 ended up 0.74%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher 0.44%, and Nasdaq Composite shot up 1.86%.

US stock indices ended down from 0.65% to 1.27% yesterday as investors mulled Senate Republicans’ coronavirus stimulus package and a slew of very surprising earnings reports.

The U.S. republicans continued debating on its fiscal relief plan most of the day. The projected $1 trillion packages will include another round of $1,200 payment checks and additional funds for small-business loans.

A large portion of reporting yesterday companies sadly missed their earnings figures, with most disappointments coming from 3M, McDonald’s and even biotech Pfizer. Oil tumbled through the session, with West Texas Intermediate crude dropping as much as 1.5%, to $41.10 per barrel.

Gold was the leading instrument in the 1^st half of trading week. Gold prices took a stratospheric leap last week, jumping from the previous week’s support test at $1800 an ounce to the $1900 level that hasn’t been traded since 2011.

Next day Gold jumped to a record high of $1944 per ounce, driven by an uptick in new U.S. coronavirus cases that have added to economic uncertainty. Shares of Moderna surged after the company said it received an additional $472 million in funding for its COVID-19 vaccine.

Trading ideas

According to a new court filing, multiple California state offices are actively investigating Amazon (AMZN) over worker safety concerns as the coronavirus continues to rage throughout the U.S. An eighth Amazon employee has died of COVID-19, and the virus has spread quickly through clusters of employees at factory floors and warehouses nationwide where social distancing isn’t enforced. Amazon’s own shipping centers have reported outbreaks, including one in the Pocono Mountains and another in Oregon.

The earnings date for Amazon is July 31, an overwhelming majority of high-profile analysts think the numbers will be as stellar as never before. Amazon’s average EPS estimate is $3.6 versus $5.01 it actually earned last quarter. It’s easy to guess that Amazon will beat that number indeed. However, even the bigger question will be how the tech giant is going to address these mounting allegations about poor safety of its employees. It looks like this time around it’s no longer just curiosity.

Global payments processor Visa reports earnings today, on July 29, and it will be more than just one more set of quarterly financial numbers. Investors will get a direct insight into how consumer spending is being affected by the pandemic and an uncertain economy. This quarter revenue for the payments processing giant are expected to drop by roughly 17% to $4.81 billion versus $5.84 billion a year ago. This anticipated drop has a lot to do with lower transaction volume as many stores were closed throughout the quarter. With that said, there is optimism for a potential beat driven by increased digital payment volume as more and more people shopped online.

Indeed, dealing with paper money has now become not only unsafe but also unsanitary. So VISA’s performance will be more or less accurately reflecting the real global consumer spending, and households’ entire propensity to consume, and how efficient the world’s largest central banks’ and governments’ efforts to offset the COVID-19 impact. So fasten your seatbelts!

The Australian dollar has rallied rather significantly on Monday, showing signs of life yet again as the U.S. dollar continues to get hammered against most currencies. Aussie pierced below 1.40 mark, and now this level became its support, rather than resistance level. A couple of times over the past several trading sessions it tried to approach it, but the big return looked invariably spectacular.

So, this level now can be seen as a cemented support for the Australian currency. Its further growth towards 1.35 is highly dependent on the continuation of the gold rally. Australia is the second-largest gold producer in the world with 325 tons per year, right after China. By the way, 2019 was a record year for Australian gold production.

So, the momentum the Australian currency has been gaining lately is not just a coincidence, and if greenback keeps getting softer, and metals keep getting stronger, it would be hard to find a better choice than to take a chance on the Aussie.

One of the less-talked-about but more potent beneficiaries of this year’s gold rally Kinross Gold (KGC) is scheduled to announce Q2 earnings results today, on July 29th, after market close.

The consensus EPS estimate is 13 cents and the consensus revenue estimate is around $1 billion (assuming a 20% growth Year-over-Year). Over the last 2 years, Kinross Gold has beaten EPS estimates 63% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 50% of the time.

Kinross is gaining from higher production at its two main deposit fields, which already had shown strong momentum in this year’s first quarter. Strong production is likely to have continued in the second quarter. Further, gold prices have been soaring this year making it the most attractive safe-haven asset. Gold prices have gained around 13% in the second quarter — the highest quarterly percentage increase in more than four years.

by Vladimir Rojankovski, Grand Capital Chief Analyst