Patience” has been the latest mantra for goldinvestors as the yellow metal has struggled to find momentum as the firstquarter of 2019 comes to an end.

Gold prices are looking to close the week innegative territory, ending a three-week winning streak. Despite a strong rallyat the start of the new year, for the quarter, the yellow metal is eking out amodest gain, up 1.3%.

According to analysts, although the precious metalis supported by falling bond yields, it continues to struggle against resilientstrength in equity markets and the U.S. dollar;however, some analysts continue to look past near-term U.S. dollar strength asthreats to the economy continue to build.

Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist atBloomberg Intelligence, said that he expects weaker equity markets to signal anend to the dollar’s rally.

“We expect last year's strong dollar performance tohave marked a last gasp for the bull market, and for the greenback to remainnear the bottom of 2019 performers, which is primarily supportive of metals,”he wrote in a report Friday.

In a recent interview with Kitco News, Axel Merk,president and chief investment officer of Merk Investments said that a lot ofthe recent price action in gold can be chalked up to quarter-end positioning.He added that long-term, the recent drop in 10-year bond yields remains goldsupportive.

Although gold could remain volatile in thenear-term, Merk added that last week’s dovish move from the Federal Reserve,raises the risk for higher inflation pressures, another long-term positivefactor for gold.