Gold prices jumped more than 2% last week as global political fears (Russia, the US, North Korea) and the unknown impact of Hurricane Harvey combined to unsettle investor sentiment.
Weaker than expected jobs data for August had no impact, despite no growth in wages and not a scintilla of inflation concern to be found in the data.
Comex December gold (the new front month contract) added $US8.20, or 0.6% on Friday, to settle at $US1,330.40 an ounce – the highest finish since late September of last year, matching the settlement from September 27, according to FactSet data.
It climbed 2.5% for the week. The most-active contract’s roughly 4% August climb was the largest monthly gain since January.
The report followed one from Thursday, which showed that the Fed’s favoured measure of inflation – the core PCE (or Personal Consumption Index) rose a weak 1.4% in July – the slowest rise since December, 2015.
Meanwhile, Comex, December silver futures rose 24.1 cents, or 1.4%, to $US17.816 an ounce at Friday’s settlement, up 4% for the week to finish at the highest level since April.
Comex December copper added 2 cents, or 0.6%, to $US3.118 a pound—up around 2% for the week and at a high not seen since late 2015. October platinum ended at $US1,009 an ounce, up $10.50, or 1.1%—around 3.1% higher for the week.
And December palladium jumped $US44.85, or 4.8%, to $US977.10 an ounce, for a weekly gain of 5.5%, and another 16 year high. Metal Bulletin iron ore and coal index prices were not published on Friday because of a holiday in Singapore. The Thursday close was $US78.91 a tonne.
On the LME in London aluminium prices reached their highest since February 2013 on Friday and nickel hit a new nine-month peak after further gains in steel prices and better than expected factory data in China.
The futures prices of other metals also rose in the wake of the second of two monthly surveys of Chinese manufacturing found China’s manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in six months in August, despite expectations by some analysts that economic growth would slow in the second half.
LME benchmark aluminium was up 0.9% at $US2,136.50 a tonne after touching $US2,145, the highest since February 2013. LME three-month nickel rose 1.5% to $US11,975 a tonne, the highest since November 2016.
Copper continues to rise and three month LME metal rose 0.3% to $US6,807. The contract touched a peak of $US6,872 on Thursday, the highest since September 2014.
Copper inventories in LME-approved warehouses fell on Friday after a rise on Thursday, which interrupted weeks of falling stocks. Stocks have fallen 30% over the past two months.
