An uneventful week for gold
Market report Michael Blumenroth – 22.11.2019
Weekly market report
For most markets, the week has been characterised by rather modest margins. The focus remains on the US-Chinese trade conflict. Market participants are currently in anticipation of a small “Phase 1” trade deal between the two parties before the end of the year.
The past week has seen a large number of reports on the issue, some more positive, some more negative. The markets thus failed to find a clear direction and only moved when supposed new developments in the conflict were reported.
Gold hovers near US$1,470
Mildly supportive of the gold price: a slight decline in yields on government bonds, although these rose again yesterday, and a temporary and small US dollar weakness, all in very manageable dimensions. Gold meandered around the $1,470/ounce mark for much of the week.
Gold in US dollars traded around the 1,466 $/ounce mark on Friday morning last week. On Monday, with the new all-time record highs for the three leading US stock indices, the gold price dropped to the previous week’s low of 1,456.50 $/ounce. Prior to this, massive sales on the futures exchanges seemed to have taken place. On Monday afternoon, however, the gold price jumped back above the 1,470 $/ounce mark and reached its weekly high of 1,478.75 $/ounce on Wednesday. Since then, the precious metal has again retreated (down to 1,462.50 $/ounce yesterday evening) and is currently back to 1,470 $/ounce.
The euro saw an unusually narrow trading range against the US dollar throughout the week. Several times, it failed to reach the 1.11 level, but is now trading slightly firmer than at the end of last week.
Xetra-Gold slightly weaker week-on-week
Xetra-Gold dropped from € 42.80/gram last Friday morning to a weekly low of € 42.35/gram on Monday afternoon, but had rebounded to about 43.00 €/gram by Wednesday. This morning, it kicked off trading around €42.75 per gram.
The upcoming trading week in the US is short, due to Thanksgiving on Thursday. Meanwhile, we are still waiting for news regarding the US customs policy.
I wish all readers a restful weekend.