During the recent unrest in the markets, the gold price has had a tough time to escape the correlation with the U.S. dollar. As the volatility on the bond and stock markets continues, investors are seemingly open to the safe haven offered by precious metals.

Gold and other precious metals

Stronger than expected job reports from the US and increasing rates on government bonds pushed down the gold price last week. Now that the worries surrounding Greece have refused to dissipate and other asset classes offer little protection, investors are looking at gold and other precious metals once again.

Gold and silver prices have been going back and forth, up and down, this last week, while the yield on the 10-year bond in Germany broke the 1 percent level for the first time since September of 2014.

While the upward potential of gold has been limited up to now because of the rise of the US dollar (a stronger dollar often keeps precious metals down), the outlook for the rest of the year turns positive, according to certain analysts.

Developments in the precious metals markets

It would be wrong to conclude that the outlook of the gold market for the rest of 2015 is only dependent on the developments of the U.S. monetary policy and that a rate hike by the Fed can only mean that precious metals prices will go down, according to Julian Jessop, head of commodities research at Capital Economics.

In the shorter term, the demand for a safe haven and the purchase of precious metals could compensate the strong headwind coming from the developments in the U.S., he added.

The demand for gold could also rise, since the precious metal also serves as a hedge against inflation, when the Federal Reserve comes through with the rate hike as a consequence of rising inflation, according to Jessop. Another positive point for gold is the amount of purchases of central banks, with Russia leading the pack. The Russian central bank built up a bigger gold reserve in an attempt to diversify itself from the U.S. dollar.