Gold futures ended lower on Monday, as Wall Street rose strongly, the dollar followed suit and traders wondered about the rapidly moving developments in the coronavirus pandemic.
President Donald Trump’s extension of guidelines on measures meant to mitigate the spread of the virus also played on confidence and late in the session, retail giants Macy’s said it would send all its 130,000 staff (including those at Bloomingdale’s) on leave and close all its stores for a short while.
Complicating matters is the current shortage of gold metal because of the closure of three refineries in Switzerland and the Royal Canadian Mint.
Comex gold for June delivery fell by $US10.90, or 0.7%, to settle at $US1,643.20 an ounce. Prices for the April contract, which is still among the more active, jumped 9.5% last week for the biggest weekly rise since September 2008, according to FactSet data.
Comex May silver meanwhile, dropped 40.2 cents, or 2.8%, to $US14.132 an ounce, pulling back after posting a weekly climb of more than 17%—the largest weekly rise since April 1987.
Among other metals traded on Comex, May copper lost 0.8% to settle at $US2.1555 a pound on Comex.
