This gold-related ETF is crushing the stock market's gains in 2019 -- and analysts say the metal has room to run

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o put the gains for the GDX, referring to the ETFs ticker symbol trading on the NYSE Arca, into perspective, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.25% is up nearly 17% in 2019 so far, the S&P 500 SPX, +0.02% has gained more than 19%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.06% boasts a rich 24% climb over the past seven months.

Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com, said that gold has more room to run: "The bulls' next target could be the underside of the rising trend capping the prior highs, which comes in around $1460, with the psychologically-important $1500 hurdle being the subsequent objective," he wrote in a Thursday report.

Gold has benefited from a number of factors but popped in electronic trading late Thursday after New York Fed President John Williams made comments that the market implied as raising the likelihood that the Federal Reserve may take more aggressive action at the end of this month to stave off a tariff-induced slowdown in the economy. "When you only have so much stimulus at your disposal, it pays to act quickly to lower rates at the first sign of economic distress," Williams said at a research conference.