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Silver Price News: Silver Near $23 at Start of Busy Week for Central Banks
Silver is just about holding above $23 an ounce as investors weigh up silver’s safe haven appeal as Israel continues to attack Gaza against a macroeconomic environment in which interest rates are set to stay at elevated levels for a sustained period.
While silver doesn’t have the same safe haven appeal as its precious metal peer, gold, it has still benefited from the broader risk-off environment that prevailed in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the Middle Eastern country’s aggressive response.
Yet the metal also has much more industrial exposure than gold, so the state of the global economy also has a significant bearing on the price of silver. As a result in a week of central bank interest rate decisions, Wednesday’s quarterly refunding announcement by the US Treasury arguably is the most significant for silver investors with the central banks all expected to keep their rates unchanged. Read More
Gold Price News: Gold Trades Near $2,000 as Safe Haven Demand Remains Strong
Gold has started a new trading week trading close to $2,000 an ounce with safe haven demand still high as Israel begins to mount its ground invasion of Gaza.
This week is filled with central bank announcements with tomorrow bringing the Bank of Japan’s rate decision, followed by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday. While all three central banks are expected to leave their interest rates unchanged, the continued reminder of their hawkish stance is likely to keep a lid on a gold price that is already at a very high level historically.
The huge increase in geopolitical tensions ever since Hamas killed Israeli citizens and the subsequent aggressive response by Israel will keep demand for safe haven assets, principally gold, supported for the foreseeable future with no quick end to the conflict in sight. Read More
Gold's safe-haven appeal continues despite elevated U.S. yields - DailyFX's Snow
The bullish run of gold has cooled off, but the potential for strong upside remains, according to Richard Snow, Strategist at DailyFX.
“Gold is highly sensitive to geopolitical conflict and therefore, it comes as no surprise to see the safe haven metal posting an exponential rise in recent weeks, near 10% from the low,” he said.
However, Snow said the momentum appears to have paused this week as traders assess the overbought status of the commodity “and closely monitor the latest negotiations around a possible ceasefire and the release of civilian hostages.”
Gold prices dipped at the start of the week but recovered as the week progressed, he noted. “US Yields remain elevated, suggesting that the dominant driver of gold is centered around its safe haven appeal.” Read More
Geopolitical uncertainty will support gold prices through 2024 - World Bank Commodity Outlook
Geopolitical turmoil has once again impacted the gold market and safe-haven demand has the potential to drive prices even higher as any potential escalation in Israel's war with Hamas creates further chaos in the Middle East, according to analysts at the World Bank.
The international financial institution published its latest commodity market outlook Monday, saying they see average gold prices rising 6% in 2024 to $1,900 an ounce, before the market cools the following year.
"The conflict in the Middle East is set to lead to heightened global uncertainty, with substantial implications to gold prices if the conflict escalates. Although the initial impact has so far been moderate, its escalation would exacerbate such uncertainty, which would lead to reduced risk appetite as well as lower consumer and investor confidence," the analysts said in the report.
The World Bank's bullish outlook for gold comes as analysts expect the ongoing conflict to broadly impact commodity markets from energy to agriculture.
"An escalation of the conflict is a major risk to commodity markets because the region has a substantial share of the global oil supply," the analysts said. "Disruptions to energy supplies and spikes in energy prices would affect other commodities through higher production costs, raising food and metals prices. In particular, as food prices increase, global food insecurity, already on the rise, could reach new heights." Read More
Geopolitical uncertainty continues to support short squeeze in gold
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas continues to prompt hedge funds to exit their short bets in the gold market, with some starting to take new bullish positions, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The CFTC's disaggregated Commitments of Traders report for the week ending Oct. 24 showed money managers increased their speculative gross long positions in Comex gold futures by 17,748 contracts to 122,456. At the same time, short positions fell by 22,897 contracts to 66,708.
The gold market is now net bullish by 55,748 contracts. During the survey period, the continued short covering helped to push gold to $2,000 an ounce. Since then, safe-haven demand has pushed gold prices through that critical psychological level.
"Gold remains the go-to market right now with bonds offering little protection while stocks continue to sell off," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy, in a comment to Kitco News. "We have seen a bit of profit taking the last couple of days in the belief that an attack on $2k would require additional consolidation, but that was clearly not the case. A close above will open up for an extension towards 2050." Read More
China's gold output, consumption rise in 2023, gold ETFs add 9.53 tonnes in Q3
China’s gold production and consumption both increased over the first nine months of 2023, while the country’s gold ETFs also saw significant inflows in the third quarter, according to a report from Xinhua.
“China produced 271.248 tonnes of gold in the first nine months of 2023, up 1.261 tonnes or 0.47 percent compared with the same period last year,” the report said, citing data released by the China Gold Association (CGA). “In the January-September period, gold consumption in China totaled 835.07 tonnes, up 7.32 percent year-on-year.”
The CGA data also revealed a rise in the consumption of gold jewelry and gold bars and coins in the Chinese market. “Consumption of gold jewelry in the Chinese market rose 5.72 percent year-on-year to 552.04 tonnes, while that of gold bars and coins surged 15.98 percent from the same period in 2022 to 222.37 tonnes,” they said.
However, not all sectors saw an increase in gold consumption. “During the period, consumption of gold for industrial and other use fell 5.53 percent from a year earlier to 60.66 tonnes,” the report said. Read More
Safe-haven bids fuel advances higher gold, silver markets
Gold and silver prices are higher in midday U.S. trading Monday, boosted by safe-haven demand amid the Israel-Hamas war and the potential for a wider Middle East conflict. Some notions the Federal Reserve may be done raising interest rates are also a bullish element for the metals markets. December gold was last up $10.70 at $2,009.20. December silver was last up $0.538 at $23.42.
Risk appetite has upticked a bit to start the trading week, as seen by a rally in the U.S. stock market. This comes despite Israel beginning its anticipated ground war against Hamas in Gaza. The "smart money” knows there is still the serious potential for this conflict to escalate to include other countries, including the U.S. That's keeping a floor under safe-haven gold and silver.
Technically, December gold futures prices hit a three-month-high Friday. The bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a four-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls' next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at $2,050.00. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $1,950.00. First resistance is seen at last week's high of $2,019.70 and then at the July high of $2,028.60. First support is seen at Friday's low of $1,986.40 and then at $1,973.60. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.5.
Image Source: Kitco News
December silver futures bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. A four-week-old price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls' next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $24.05. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $22.00. First resistance is seen at $23.75 and then at the October high of $23.88. Next support is seen at today's low of $23.135 and then at $23.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0. Read More
Image Source: Kitco News
Central banks could see record demand this year, driven by insatiable Q3 purchases - WGC
Central bank demand continues to dominate the gold market, as the pace of purchases was its strongest since last year, according to the latest report from the World Gold Council.
“Although shy of breaking the Q3 2022 record, year-to-date demand has reached 800t, a new record for our data series. This strong buying streak from central banks is expected to stay on course for the remainder of the year, indicating a robust annual total again in 2023,” analysts at the World Gold Council said in their Quarterly Demand Trends report for the third quarter. “While there is a nucleus of committed regular buyers, the range of countries whose central banks have added to their reserves over recent quarters is broad-based.”
Central bank demand was the biggest driver of physical gold demand last quarter, which saw an overall decline. The WGC said that from July to September, global demand for physical gold totaled 1,147t, down 6% from the third quarter of 2022. However, looking at the long-term trend, demand is up 8% compared to the five-year average. Read More
Live From The Vault - Episode: 146
The game has changed, but it’s still profitable - Feat. Dave Kranzler
In this week’s episode of Live from the Vault, Andrew Maguire is joined by Dave Kranzler, founder of Investment Research Dynamics and Mining Stock Journal writer, to discuss outstanding US Treasury Debt and its impact on precious metals.
The experts debate how the coming banking and financial crises will be far more devastating than 2008 and how this will impact the price of gold and silver, before Dave reveals some of the stocks he’s looking at shorting in the near future.
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Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
