CITIC Securities: Gold market is strong and rising, investment prospects continue to improve.

Recently, the gold market has shown strong performance, and Citic Securities has released multiple research reports analyzing the trend of gold prices and investment prospects. The research reports pointed out that escalating tensions in the Middle East, Moody's downgrade of US sovereign credit rating, and other factors have triggered risk aversion sentiment, driving up the price of gold. COMEX gold futures have reached above $3350 per ounce, with a year-to-date increase of over 27%. Various teams have provided their outlook on gold investment from different perspectives, including the option VIX indicator suggesting a risk of gold correction, China being in the first stage of the Kondratiev cycle recommending an overweight in gold, and optimizing gold multidimensional timing and systematic investment strategies. In addition, the impact of factors such as tariff negotiations, risk aversion demand, and inflation expectations on gold prices are discussed, as well as the expectation of incremental funds brought by the pilot investment of insurance funds in gold. Overall, Citic Securities holds an optimistic attitude towards the investment prospects of gold, believing that gold is likely to continue to strengthen.