Why the gold pullback may be a buying opportunity for investors
(This is a wrap-up of the key money moving discussions on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” exclusive for PRO subscribers. Worldwide Exchange airs at 5 a.m. ET each day.) Investors are looking for opportunities in cyclical stocks and at the outlook on gold after a pullback from all-time highs. ‘Worldwide Exchange’ Pick: consumer discretionary sector Joseph Quinlan of Bank of America sees big upside for the consumer discretionary sector. “The U.S. consumer continues to power ahead. There is going to be very good holiday spending and already we are talking to clients who are booking vacations and all the plans for next year,” said Quinlan. “We’ve got a lot, we have the soccer World Cup, the 250th Anniversary of the US, there is a lot of upside to a lot of these consumer discretionary stocks.” The consumer discretionary sector is trading very close to the S & P 500 since the April lows. The top performing stocks year to date are Tapestry , eBay and DoorDash . New Money: cyclicals Mark Hackett of Nationwide sees big upside for new money in cyclical stocks, specifically financials, industrials and small Caps. “I don’t think the rate cuts themselves are the catalysts, I think that the new catalyst is the quantitative tightening conversation,” said Hackett. Hackett added: “You have the trade deals that have been signed, a lot of them have embedded purchase agreements in them that are fairly short term. Also the benefit from the budget package, which will have tax returns up in the first quarter, has corporate income taxes down, catalyst we haven’t really been talking a lot about. Also the weakening dollar is a tailwind from an earnings and a competitive perspective.” Retail vs. institutional Joe Mazzola of Schwab says this month he ‘s seeing a divergence between the institutional and retail trade. “On the retail side … we’re still seeing and kind of wanting to get into this market when they see dip opportunities,” said Mazzola. “We’re a little bit different on the institutional side. Institutional side, we saw a lot more hedging activity. We saw the VIX push up in the mid to even upper 20s at one point, and that’s not really a retail product.” He added: “We saw retail continue to buy. And not only were they buying equities, but they were buying call options on a lot of these tech stocks.” The gold pullback Chris Louney of RBC sees gold pulling back from record highs as a buying opportunity. “I think we’ve seen the bubble burst from all time highs to back below $4,000 per ounce, a good entry point in our view,” said Louney. According to RBC, central bank buying and “de-dollarization” have been major catalysts for gold’s outperformance this year. but there are a number of factors that Louney sees as potential tailwinds that could push gold back to $4,500 in 2026. “The reason why gold has been so attractive this year, geopolitics, at some point it’s been about trade uncertainty, at some points its been about armed conflicts, at some point it’s been about questions about [Federal Reserve] Independence. … If we learned anything this year, it’s that uncertainty can come from a number of different places.” ( Learn the best 2026 strategies from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others at CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and info here . )
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