Gold breaks $1,300 for the first time in 15 months

Gold broke the $1,300 level for the first time since last January on Monday.

Futures climbed less than 1%, or about $10 an ounce, to as high as $1,304.25 in early trading.

A steady rally since early last week took the precious metal above the key level. In the same period, the dollar has weakened. It fell strongly against the Japanese yen after the central bank surprisingly made a monetary policy announcement last week with no additional stimulus measures.

Also, the Federal Reserve reminded markets last Wednesday that it will raise interest rates very steadily.

Gold is one of the best-performing assets year-to-date through, behind only iron ore, lumber and Tin. Macquarie analysts forecast that real rates would become more negative over the next 18 months, and that would be supportive for gold.

This chart show's the rally above $1,300 on Monday:

Investing.com

And this one shows how gold is outperforming in relation to other assets:

Macquarie