Gold prices could “break the highs”

According to UBS Investment Bank’s Joni Teves,Gold prices could “break the highs” seen earlier this year, after declining in March along with assets across the board. “There is growing potential (for gold) to break $1,800 (per ounce) in my view,” Joni Teves, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday. The firm has a target price for gold at $1,790 per ounce. That comes as “investor interest continues to grow in this environment of uncertainty and negative real rates,” Teves said. As of Monday afternoon Singapore time, the price of spot gold was around $1,698.61 per ounce, an almost 12% increase year to date. “Gold is becoming attractive in this environment where uncertainty is very high, growth is expected to weaken, and at the same time you have negative real rates which make gold attractive to hold as a diversifier in investor portfolios,” Teves said. Meanwhile, Fat Prophets’ David Lennox told CNBC in an email that the “bigger tailwind” for gold prices is in the actions of government and central banks.