Gold regained its lustre big time last week, shaking off doubts about its safe-haven status.
But the prices of other metals fell on Friday as fears about COVID-19’s impact on global demand hit home.
The driver for the surge last week was of course the fears about the COVID-19 virus/panic which saw the Fed cut rates 0.50% last week and the yield on the 10 year US bond tumble to a new, unbelievable low of 0.695%.
The price rose $US105.70 over the course of a week, the sharpest point and percentage gain over that period since 2011.
That was despite the stronger than forecast February jobs report with 273,000 new positions created and the estimates for January and December revised upwards by a total of 95,000.
The jobless rate fell back to the previous 50 year low of 3.5% and the annual wage rise eased to 3% from 3.1%.
Comex gold for April delivery rose $US4.40, or 0.3%, to $US1,672.40 an ounce, after touching an intraday peak at $1,690.70.
For the week, gold rose 6.79%, the largest weekly gain for a most-active contract since 2011, according to FactSet data.
Fear about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak has driven appetite for assets perceived as havens, including bullion and government debt.
Comex May silver shed 13 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $US17.263 an ounce. For the week, silver added 4.89%.
Comex May copper fell 1.25 US cents, or 0.5%, to end at $US2.5605 a pound, down 0.8% for the week and 8.7% for the year so far.
In London LME prices of copper, aluminium and other industrial metals slumped on Friday as the coronavirus outbreak extended outside China, threatening to economic growth and metals consumption across the globe.
Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange shed 1.2% on Friday to $US5,607 a tonne. The price is down 11% since mid-January.
LME aluminium slid 2% to close at $US1,685 a tonne. Nickel dropped 0.4% to $12,840, zinc eased 1.3% to $US1,984, lead rose 1% to $US1,853 and tin gave up 0.9% to $US16,875.
Traders say the market is becoming built up with stockpiles of copper, aluminium and nickel.
For example, copper stocks in China piled rose by a hefty 11.1% from the previous week to 345,126 tonnes, the highest since April 2016.
