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Silver was comfortably above $15 on Friday, while copper hit its highest point in about two weeks. Oil was down.
The gold price is down from last week’s impressive high of $1,260.60 per ounce, but not by too much. As of 12:00 p.m. EST on Friday, it was changing hands at $1,230.75, and earlier this week touched $1,237.
According to Reuters, the yellow metal continues to be buoyed by “turmoil in the wider financial markets,” which is increasing gold’s appeal as a safe-haven asset, and also lowering expectations that the US Federal Reserve will further increase interest rates this year.
“Momentum is strong. [On Thursday] gold moved up even when the dollar was stronger, so for me that signals that it is mainly central bank-policy driven,” Georgette Boele, an analyst at ABN AMRO Bank told the news outlet. Meanwhile, Simon Weeks, head of precious metals at the Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS), said, “[a]s a safe haven, it is definitely coming into play again.”
Unsurprisingly, the silver price largely followed the gold price this week. Though the white metal was off from last week’s high of $15.88 per ounce, it was able to stay above $15, moving between $15.16 and $15.48.
On the base metals side, the copper price hit its highest point in about two weeks on Friday, as did nickel and zinc prices. As Reuters states in another article, those gains came on the back of “brighter prospects for Chinese demand and concern about the potential for looming shortages.”
All in all, three-month LME copper peaked at $4,631.50 per tonne on Friday, its highest point since February 9, before sinking slightly to $4,621. For the week as a whole, the metal gained 3 percent, and is doing much better than it was midway through January, when it hit a six-and-a-half-year low point.
Finally, while oil prices soared a whopping 7 percent on Wednesday after Iran said it supports Russia and Saudi Arabia’s move to stem the oil market glut by freezing production, they were not faring quite so well on Friday. Reuters states that as of 11:51 a.m. EST on Friday, US crude futures were down $1.17, or 3.8 percent, at $29.60 per barrel; meanwhile, Brent crude was down $1.28, or 3.7 percent, at $33.
The fuel’s gains earlier in the week were reportedly “tempered by continued concerns of an oversupplied market after a record build in U.S. crude inventories.” The consensus among analysts is that US stockpiles will rise on the back of seasonal spring refinery maintenance works.
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Related reading:
Weekly Round-Up: Gold Makes a Comeback
Weekly Round-Up: Gold, Silver Hit Highest in 3.5 Months
Weekly Round-Up: Gold to Make Biggest Monthly Gain in a Year?
Weekly Round-Up: Copper Set for Biggest Weekly Rise Since October
Weekly Round-Up: Gold Below $1,100, Copper Under $2
