Palladium Prices Buoyed by Strikes, Easing Syria Concerns

The Financial Times reported that striking South African mineworkers, along with waning concern about a US attack on Syria, have helped stop “a three-week slide in palladium prices.” Strong auto sales numbers from the US may also have helped the precious metal.

As quoted in the market news:

The palladium price has hovered in the $680-$700 range this week after a sustained fall from a two-month high of $766 a troy ounce in mid-August. On Wednesday it was trading at $694 a troy ounce, up 0.4 per cent from the day before.

Palladium’s decline since mid-August unwound more than half of a rally that started at the end of June, when the price touched a six-month low of $630 a troy ounce.

According to James Steel, a commodities analyst at HSBC, ‘the bulk of the slide [was] a reflection of thin trading’, with general weakness ‘in the wider commodities sphere’ affecting palladium disproportionately.

 Click here to read the full Financial Times report.