Gold’s worst enemy is surging real yields. It was supposed to be a quiet start to the week for gold with China coming to the rescue and some calm before Friday’s Jackson Hole speech by Fed Chair Powell. There is a little bit of nervousness from the long-term bulls as gold futures are getting dangerously close to the $1900 level, which could trigger a wave of technical selling. It seems gold needs some disorderly stress in financial markets for it to rally and that doesn’t seem like it is happening anytime soon. The outlook for the next few quarters is cloudy at best, but it seems that there is still too much strength in the economy that is dampening safe-haven flows for gold. It doesn’t help that hedge funds are throwing in the towel for gold, which now has net-long positions at a five month low.