Will Barrick Finally Join The Gold Rally?

Barrick Gold Corp (USA)(NYSE:ABX) has shown some signs of life this week after sitting out much of the gold and gold miner rally over the past several months.

In the past month, the price of gold has surged 5.6 percent to above $1,290/oz. But while the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE:GLD) is up 5.3 percent and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE:GDX) is up 9.2 percent in the past 90 days, Barrick shares are down 6.6 percent during that time.

Barrick stock came within pennies of its 2017 high of $20.71 at around the same time gold reached a short-term peak in early April. Barrick crashed right along with gold prices and the rest of the gold mining stocks shortly thereafter. But while peers have rallied since early May, Barrick has drifted mostly sideways until this week, when it jumped 5.2 percent on Tuesday.

The market may have finally forgiven Barrick for its lackluster earnings report back in April, but the stock has some major technical resistance ahead if it wants to revisit those April highs. Barrick has traded in a range between $15.83 and $17.35 ever since its earnings sell-off, so the $17-18 range will be an important test for the stock. To make matters worse for Barrick bulls, the stocks 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages could also add to resistance in the same area. The 50-day average currently sits at $17.60, while the 200-day average sits at $17.31.

If rising gold prices eventually push Barrick above $18, the stock could run into resistance again at the $20 level where it formed a double top earlier this year after rallying from below $14 in late 2017.

The stock traded at $16.99 at time of publication.

Joel Elconin contributed to this report.