‘Kerching” That’s the sound of gold prices cracking the $US1,300 an ounce level for the first time since mid-2018.
Friday saw Comex gold futures settle above $US1,300 an ounce, the highest they have been since June as the US dollar retreated back and investors worried about Venezuela and the US-China trade war.
Gold futures ignored President Trump suing for peace and agreeing to re-open the US government for three weeks to allow more talks.
Strangely his surprise announcement didn’t mention his ‘wall’ or ‘barrier’on the US-Mexico border, but he did on Saturday with a stream of tweets which threatened, but offered little.
Gold for February delivery added $18.30, or 1.4%, to settle at $US1,304.20 an ounce after trading as high as $1,305.80.
The April contract notched its highest finish since June and climbed by 1.2% over the week, according to FactSet data.
Comex March silver followed suit – the price rising 2.6% on Friday, to $US15.699 an ounce— for a 2% gain over the week.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index a measure of the currency against six major rivals, was off 0.8%, trading 0.5% lower for the week.
A weaker greenback is usually supportive for dollar-priced commodities by making them cheaper to users of other currencies.
The Aussie dollar ended at 71.81 US cents, up from 71.68 cents the week before. It failed to follow gloomy forecasts during the week and slide.
US bond yields finished at just over 2.76%, down a fraction on the previous week. Australian bond yields ended at 2.21% and down a touch also from the previous week.
In other metals trade, March palladium jumped 3.1%, to $US1,319.80 an ounce, but saw a weekly loss of about 1.2%.
Interestingly there are rising reports of the theft of car catalytic converters (for the palladium especially) from the UK and US since the price of the rare metal rose late last year and briefly topped the price of gold 10 days ago.
March copper rose 3.2%, to $2.729 a pound for a weekly climb of just 0.4%.
