Gold went for another record-breaking run on Monday but couldn’t hang on to the new peak, while copper managed to retain its gains.
Comex June futures leapt to a new all-time high of just over $US2,454 an ounce — $10 higher than the previous peak reached on Monday, May 6. However, they then retraced to finish around $US2,429 an ounce in the very early Asian market dealings on Tuesday.
The drivers were, of course, the continuing interest rate cut speculation, but also the deaths of the Iranian President and Foreign Minister over the weekend, which raised fears of more tension in the Middle East.
The latest deaths added to the tension boosted by the weekend attack on a China-bound oil tanker, which was hit by a Houthi missile in the Red Sea on Saturday.
However, that attack had no impact on oil prices, with US West Texas Intermediate losing half a percent from Friday to trade around $US78.67 Tuesday morning in Asia.
The US dollar rose, while the Aussie fell back under 67 US cents to around 66.60 US cents, and that saw the Australian dollar gold price trade around $A3,638 an ounce Tuesday morning.
Comex copper futures, though, closed just over $US5.10 — a record close for the red metal — and touched an all-time high of $US5.199 a pound, topping the previous high earlier this month of $US5.12 a pound.
