Shares in ASX listed gold miners will take a big hit today after the price of the precious metal fell sharply on Thursday.
In fact both gold and sliver slumped on Thursday, while oil rose and iron ore bounced back strongly because of more interest in Chinese futures markets.
Gold though was the stand out – it ended US trading down well over 2% and under $US1,800 an ounce.
The slide came as Wall Street ended the session with gains of more than 1% for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq (1.23%).
All three measures ended at record levels and the ASX futures platform was showing another strong start to the day with a 66 point gain at 8am.
That was despite the plunge in gold prices which will hit the prices of the likes of Evolution, Newcrest, Northern Star and St Barbara.
April Comex gold futures settled at $US1,791.20 – a fall of 2.4% or a massive $US43.90. At 8am Sydney time the price was down 2.20% at just over $US1,794 an ounce.
Traders blamed a strengthening US dollar (the US dollar index that hit a two-month high overnight) and on chart-based selling pressure from futures traders as the technical picture for both markets weakened this week.
April gold futures dropped to a two-month low.
March Comex silver was last down 1.8% at $US26.415 an ounce as the remnants of the silly Reddit buying wave last week that evaporated almost as soon as it started. The metal had dipped down a low of $US25.93 an ounce in early Thursday trading.
Comex copper also fell, to just under $US3.55 a pound – a fall of around a cent and a half.
Oil prices bounced by more than 1% to trade at new 12 month highs in early Asian trading close to $US59 a barrel for Brent crude..
Iron ore prices bounced by 3.5% as more interest appeared in mainland Chinese markets.
The price of 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China rose $US5.38 a tonne to $US158.03 while the price of 65% Fines delivered to northern China (mostly from Brazil) was up $US6.30 a tonne to end at $US181.70.
And the US economy seems to be getting over its COVID-driven end of year hiccup. The US Labor Department reported on Thursday that 779,000 Americans filed new applications for unemployment benefits last week, lower than 812,000 in the prior week, as governments started easing lockdowns and other restrictions.
Tonight sees the release of the January labour force report which is also expected to show an addition of 50,000 jobs in January after December’s drop of 140,000 (which could be revised.
