Gold futures rose for a fourth straight session on Tuesday but then dipped in after-hours trading.
Weakness in the US dollar provided a lift to gold, even as the sharemarket rose on hopes of an early re-opening of the economy.
Gold investors ignored weak results from two major banks with the biggest, JPMorgan chase seeing a 69% slump in net earnings for the quarter as it squirreled away $US6.8 billion in extra money into its loan loss reserves in anticipation of big losses on customer loans.
A warning of a slump in global growth from the International Monetary Fund was noted but didn’t really impact the gold market.
The IMF sees the global economy contracting at a 3% annual rate this year followed by a 5.8% rebound in 2021, representing a deeper recession than during the 2007-09 recession.
“Much worse growth outcomes are possible and maybe even likely,” wrote Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s top economist, in a Tuesday statement.
US GDP will be down 5.9%. according to the IMF estimate.
“Major corporate earnings reports are now starting to be released, which will show the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and be a sobering reminder of the tough economic times at present,” wrote Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco, in a research note o.n Tuesday.
Comex gold for June delivery rose by $US7.50, or 0.4%, to settle at $US1,768.90 an ounce after hitting an intraday peak at $1,788.80. It dipped in early Asian trading and was down $US2.800 an ounce at $US1,754.80 an ounce (6am).
Tuesday’s settlement and peak were the highest values for a most-active contract since October 2012.
Elsewhere on Comex, May silver futures jumped 59.3 cents, or 3.8%, to $US16.13 an ounce.
May copper also rose 1.2% to $US2.3295 a pound.
Iron prices rose 1.7% on Tuesday to $US87.02 off the back of solid monthly iron ore import figures for China for March.
