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Silver Battles to Climb Above $25 Once Again Illustrating Underlying Strength of Support
Silver has once again strived to climb above $25 an ounce after briefly dipping below that threshold.
This is now the fifth time this month that silver has dropped below $25 and on each previous occasion, it has quickly rebounded, illustrating the strength of investor support at this level.
The peace talks in Ukraine are the main driver for markets currently with any signs of potential breakthrough met with a rise in equities and a decline in haven assets such as silver, while any sign of them breaking down or an escalation in violence provides a boost for gold and silver at the expense of equities. Read More
Gold Benefits From Dip in Equities But Further Out Bearish Headwinds Are Circling
A slight dip on equities markets has been met with a small corresponding gain for gold.
Signs that the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are making progress has been a driver for the recent partial recovery for equities but the situation remains very fragile with today’s small pullback a sign that investors remain unwilling to expose themselves fully to risk assets and continue to seek the succor of haven assets such as gold.
Already the US and UK central banks have made their first moves in hiking interest rates to try and bring inflation under control and it is surely only a matter of time until the European Central Bank follows suit.
So while gold has benefited from the rush to haven assets at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, any unwinding of those fear trades coupled with central banks hiking rates is likely to see gold fall out of favor. Read More
U.S. weekly jobless claims increase to 202,000, gold price ticks up
The initial weekly jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 202,000 in the week to Saturday, slightly disappointing market expectations.
Economists' consensus calls projected for initial claims to come in at 197,000 following the revised level of 188,000 reported in the previous week.
The four-week moving average for new claims – often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it flattens week-to-week volatility – decreased to 208,500. The previous week's four-week moving average was revised up to 212,000, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday. Read More
Gold price could fall $100 as safe-haven premium weakens but prices won't collapse - Natixis
The gold market could see a $100 drop as its geopolitical safe-haven premium weakens after Russia said it would scale back its war in Ukraine; however, don’t expect to see a collapse in gold or silver as the precious metals have some significant underlying support, according to one precious metals analyst.
In a telephone interview with Kitco News, Bernard Dahdah, precious metals analyst at Natixis, said that the gold market will remain volatile in the near term as the market continues to react to headlines surrounding Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“The market should ignore the words from Russia until the bombs stop,” he said.
However, he added that investors need to keep an eye on gold’s war premium.
“For gold to go higher, the war needs to escalate, and I don’t see that happening unless Russia decides to weaponize its commodities and cuts off its oil and gas to Europe,” he said. “In the near-term, I see gold prices going lower, but it won’t collapse in a heap.” Read More
BMO upgrades gold and silver prices along with 19 other commodities
Unprecedented disruptions in global supply chains, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, have created a historic environment for commodity markets. While prices are expected to go higher across the board, analysts at BMO Capital Markets argue that it might not be good.
In its second-quarter commodity outlook report, the Canadian bank said it has upwardly revised 21 out of 26 commodities it covers. In the precious metals space, the analysts said they revised their 2022 gold price by 8% and silver by 12%.
"The storm of supply disruptions, logistic issues, sanctions, financial short squeezes and purchasing manager panic has seen some of the most dramatic metals and bulk commodity price moves seen in history over Q1 2022," the analysts said in the report. Read More
Gold up as traders buy the early dip; U.S. jobs data looms
Gold prices are modestly higher in midday U.S. trading Thursday, as the bulls stepped in to buy the early slight dip in prices. Oil prices pushing well up from their daily lows after trading sharply down early on also supported the metals markets. Now, the marketplace awaits what is arguably the most important U.S. data point of the month on Friday morning. April gold futures were last up $6.60 at $1,940.30 and May Comex silver was last down $0.073 at $25.04 an ounce
Image Source: Kitco News
Technically, April gold futures bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. However, prices are in a three-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls' next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at last week’s high of $1,967.20. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at this week’s low of $1,888.30. First resistance is seen at $1,950.00 and then at $1,967.20. First support is seen at today’s low of $1,919.10 and then at $1,900.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0. Read More
Gold price has room to move higher, but there is better value in mining equities - Franklin Templeton
The gold market hasn't seen the last of $2,000 an ounce as inflation and uncertainty continue to dominate financial markets. At the same time, investors looking for value in the precious metals space might want to focus on equities, according to one portfolio manager.
In a report published Tuesday, Steve Land, portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton, said that although volatility will remain a prominent feature of financial markets, precious metals equities could outperform physical metals. This comes as he sees further upside for gold, especially as inflation pressures continue to rise in an uncertain economic environment.
"Gold has been performing well, but we still see a number of potential drivers that could move the metal even higher," he said in the report. Read More
Gold price posts best results since Q3 2020, path to $2,000 looks clear
The gold market is closing the first quarter of 2022 with the best gains since Q3 2020 — when the precious metal was in very high demand and scored new record highs of above $2,060 an ounce.
Gold has gained more than 6% in the first quarter, with spot prices last trading at $1,944 an ounce. This is an impressive turnaround for the precious metal, which wrapped up 2021 down 3.7% — gold's worst year since 2015. The price surge was apparent when gold made a run for record highs earlier this month, pushing well above $2,000 an ounce.
The safe-haven metal surged in demand after Russia's invasions of Ukraine. Geopolitical uncertainty coupled with even higher inflation triggered a new wave of inflows into the sector. Also, the yield-curve recession signals have boosted gold's investment case as the 2-year and the 10-year spread briefly inverted in March.
"Safe-haven flows are the name of the game for gold. So long as material progress on ceasefire talks and de-escalation remains elusive, haven flows are likely to keep the yellow metal propped up against an increasingly hawkish Fed backdrop," said strategists at TD Securities. Read More
The first quarter of 2022 reveals an astronomical rise in inflation this quarter and since 2020
To say that the last two years contained extreme hardship beginning with the pandemic that led to a recession and massive expenditures by governments and central banks would be an understatement. The pandemic created one of the deepest recessions in history. This led to governments and central banks allocating enormous amounts of capital to reignite the economies that had been devastated. This led to the increased global national debt and the devaluation of currencies worldwide. The result was inflation growing to levels not seen in 40 years. Just as it seemed as though we were finally arriving at a new normalcy a geopolitical crisis developed when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Today the Commerce Department released the most recent inflationary data which showed that consumer spending rose by 0.2% last month. It reported that the PCE price index (personal consumption expenditures) which is the preferred inflationary index of the Federal Reserve and omits both energy and food rose 0.4%, which follows the rise of 0.5% in January. The net result is that the PCE price index jumped 5.4% year-over-year in February which is the largest gain since April 1983. Read More
Gold and silver are mixed ahead of the European open
Gold (-0.20%) is trading marginally lower leading into the European open at $1932.71/oz. Silver on the other hand is 0.06% higher ($24.77/oz). Elsewhere in the commodities complex, copper has fallen 1% and spot WTI is just over 2% in the red.
Risk sentiment was mixed overnight, the Nikkei 225 (-0.56%) and ASX (-0.08%) fell while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.88%. Futures in Europe are indicating a weak cash open.
In FX markets, USD/JPY continued on its upward trajectory after a brief retracement over the last few sessions. Elsewhere, NZD/USD fell 0.26%. Looking at the crypto space, BTC/USD fell 1.62% to reach $44,794.
News from overnight: Read More
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.
