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Gold prices hit a two-year high on Wednesday, with the metal still largely keeping hold of its gains after Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
Gold prices finished the week fairly flat, spiking mid-week before edging back down on Thursday and Friday. Overall, gold was up 0.19 percent to $1,353 per ounce as of 12:11 p.m. EST.
Prices for the yellow metal spiked in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union two weeks ago. As Fortune reported, gold hit a two-year high on Wednesday as more investors flocked towards the safe-haven asset.
“No one is able to understand how much risk is yet to be unraveled (from Brexit). That is an uncertainty that no one likes. This is what is driving gold prices higher,” Argonaut Securities analyst Helen Lau told the publication.
Friday brought the release of stronger US jobs data, typically a bad sign for gold. But according to BullionVault, the yellow metal stayed strong to hit its highest weekly close since March 2014. Ahead of the results release, a trader from the Swiss refining and finance group MKS told the news outlet, “A very strong jobs figure will trigger some short term pain for gold prices. However, the underlying uptrend should prevail in the medium term.”
Meanwhile, silver prices lost ground this week, falling 2.41 percent to trade at $19.87 per ounce as of 12:34 p.m. EST. Still, silver briefly topped $20 per ounce earlier in the week, and some believe that silver prices could hit $25 per ounce by the end of the year.
According to MarketWatch, analysts have upped their price predictions to $25, $27 and even $32 per ounce.
Comex copper prices also fell for the week, dropping 3.57 percent to reach $2.11 per pound as of 12:45 p.m. EST. That loss comes after copper hit two-month highs a week earlier, boosted by a softer US dollar as Brexit fears subsided.
However, Bloomberg reported that copper supply set to come online could run into hangups in the near-term, making a deficit more likely. “Our project pipeline has thinned considerably over the last year as we have factored in further delays,” said Christine Meilton, principal consultant on copper supply and raw materials at CRU in London, told the news agency.
Lastly, spot oil prices fell 7 percent for the week to reach $45.43 per barrel as of 12:51 p.m. EST on Friday. As per Reuters, prices saw a sharp drop to two-month lows on Thursday after data from the US Energy Information Administration showed crude oil stockpiles had declined less than expected.
Oil bounced back only slightly on Friday following attacks on oil installations in Nigeria, BNN reported.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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