Wall Street fell, oil was weak but gold surged, again to within sight of its all-time high, and the highest settlement for the front-month contract ever.
The jump came as US coronavirus numbers ticked over 4 million, weekly US jobless claims rose by more than 109,000 (in something of a surprise) and investors fretted about the slowing indicators of activity.
Comex August gold rose $US24.90, or 1.3%, to settle at more than $US1,890 in New York, after touching a day high of $US1,897.70.
As a result of Thursday’s jump, gold’s all-time high of $US1,920.70 2011 is now within reach.
The contract ended just short of the most-active contract settlement record of $US1,891.90 from August 22, 2011, based on records going back to November 1984, according to Marketwatch.com.
The record most-active intraday level stands at $1,923.70 an ounce on September 6, 2011.
The front-month July gold contract which trades on significantly lower volume, settled at $US1,889.10 on Thursday, up $US25, or 1.3%, for the session.
That’s a record for the front-month contracts, based on data going back to 1975, according to Marketwatch.com.
Gold prices have climbed by around 50% since the (northern) summer of 2018 when it touched a low under $US1,200 an ounce.
Gold has also has climbed around $US400 an ounce from March’s COVID-19 crash17.
Comex silver prices settled at $US23.144 an ounce on Thursday after the near 7% gain earlier in the week.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery fell 83 cents in New York, or 2%, to settle at $US41.07 a barrel, while in Europe, September Brent crude lost 98 cents, or 2.2%, at $US43.31 a barrel.
Iron ore prices remained rangebound – the pr4ice for 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China eased 83 cents to $US110.12 a tonne on Thursday, according to the Metal Bulletin.
In equities the S&P 500 slid more than 1%, ending a four-day winning streak and led all three major U.S. stock indices lower on the day.
Shares in Apple, Microsoft Corp, Tesla, and Amazon all fell more than 3%.
The number of US coronavirus cases topped 4 million on Thursday, with nearly 2,600 new cases every hour, according to a Reuters tally.
That means it’s taken just 16 days for the US case numbers to rise from 3 million to more than four million, the fastest growth seen anywhere around the globe.
Deaths are surging and California now has more cases than New York which was the previous unhappy record holder.
The Dow fell 353.51 points, or 1.31%, to 26,652.33 (it was down well over 400 points in the last 15 minutes), the S&P 500 shed40.36 points, or 1.23%, to 3,235.66 and the Nasdaq slid 244.71 points, or 2.29%, to 10,461.42.
US weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose to 1.416 million last week, the US Labor Department reported. That was a rise of more than 109,000 and is the first increase in four months.
