Euphoric or sound – that’s how some analysts are looking at the continuing surge in gold prices (and silver for that matter) after a 45th new daily record settlement in a row.
Nasdaq jumped above 11,000 for the first time ever as shares of Apple and Facebook (up more than 4% and 6% respectively).
Gold’s surge though was in contrast to weakness for US crude futures, but not Brent, iron ore rose over $US120 a tonne for the first time (for 62% fe fines) in 13 months.
Wall Street continued on its merry way with the Nasdaq up 1% to yet another record close – its 32nd of the year so far (are gold and Nasdaq going record for record and ignoring fundamentals, if the latter exist?)
The Dow rose 185.46 points, or 0.68%, to 27,386.98, the S&P 500 added 21.39 points, or 0.64%, to 3,349.16 and the Nasdaq closed up 109.67 points, or 1%, to 11,108.07.
That didn’t impress traders on the overnight ASX 200 futures market which was off 9 points at 7am, pointing to a weakish start this morning
Gold futures on Thursday extended a record rally to a fifth straight day despite a surprise fall in first time US jobless claims last week.
That confused traders and analysts ahead of the July jobs report tonight.
“Gold is surging once again after better-than-expected jobless claims, real yields resume their freefall, and as lawmakers struggle to make further progress on stimulus talks,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote in a daily research note.
December gold rose $US20.10, or 1%, to $US2,069.40 an ounce, registering its fifth straight record close after a 1.4% gain on Wednesday.
Gold jumped further in after hours trading to be around $US2,076 an ounce just before 7am, Sydney time.
September silver surged $US1.51, or 5.6%, to reach $28.40 an ounce, following a 3.3% rally on Wednesday, which the metal at its highest finish since 2013.
Gains for silver and gold come as the dollar was trading flat.
That saw the Aussie dollar bounce over the 72 US cent level to trade just under 72.40 just before 7am Sydney time.
The speculative forces driving gold, silver and Nasdaq didn’t impact copper. Comex September futures dipped a touch – 0.02% to end lower at $US2.9105 a pound.
Trading in iron ore – both physical and futures saw big gains on Thursday.
The index price for 62% fe fines delivered to northern China jumped by more than $US3 a tonne to end at $US121.27.
That’s the highest since July last year.
US oil futures ended a choppy trading session in negative territory on Thursday, ending a four-day winning streak.
West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery lost 24 cents, or 0.6%, to close at $US41.95 a barrel in New York.
In Europe, October Brent crude, fell 8 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $US45.09 a barrel.
Initial US jobless claims unexpectedly fell by 249,000 in early August to a still high 1.19 million, which was the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began more than four months ago.
