Potentially a major test for precious metals/mining stocks with tomorrow's July CPI report. Sustained buying out of the East (Asia) kept gold above $4,000 during the recent multi-month correction. That eventually led to some encouraging bottoming action culminating in last week's explosive up surge - which is not atypical at the start of bull market moves.
However, if inflation's hot - will it lead to a significant retracement of last week's gains? In just five days last week, the GDX gold miner ETF soared 21.3% - erasing the declines from the prior nine weeks. That ferocious move also made it difficult for the many investors caught on the sidelines to get back in. GLD has seen 15 tons of inflows over the last five days - but that would just be a start if we're in another big bull move. Futures traders' gold open interest is still extremely low at just under 400K contracts - so there's lots of potential buying fuel.
A hot CPI could provide another chance to get back in or add to one's positions once any retracement runs out of steam. Newsletter subs. know I had added to my gold miner positions since late-June thru July after reducing them significantly late last year into early this year. Nevertheless, I still would like the opportunity to buy more before gold rallies again (as I expect). Tomorrow and the next several days will determine whether I get that chance.