Precious Metals Weekly Round-Up: Gold Pulls Away from 4 Month Low

Goldmoved up on Friday (April 26), leaving behind the four month low it hit earlier in the week thanks to both the US dollar and Treasury yields slipping ahead of US growth data being released.

The yellow metal was also on track for its first weekly gain in five weeks.

“The moves in the forex market are favorable for the precious metals in general, with the euro firmer against the US dollar and a slightly lower dollar index,” said Peter Fertig, analyst at Quantitative Commodity Research.

“In addition, declining longer-term bond yields in the euro zone and the US are also supporting as the opportunity cost of holding gold is declining,” he added.

Additionally, a Reuters poll suggests that major central banks are done tightening policy as the global growth outlook has softened across developed and emerging economies, with close to no prospects for an increase in inflation.

The findings are also supported by a recent decline of the growth outlook of the Bank of Canada and a disclosure from the Bank of Japan that it will keep interest rates very low for at least the next year.

As of 10:06 a.m. EDT on Friday, gold was up 0.66 percent, trading at US$1,285.10 per ounce.

Meanwhile, silveralso made some gains on Friday, hovering just above the US$15 per ounce level and still keeping an arm’s length from the psychological level of US$16, which many industry experts thought it would have seen by now.

As of 10:10 a.m. EDT, the white metal was trading at US$15.04 per ounce.

As for the other precious metals, platinum managed to climb 1.37 percent for the week and made gains of 0.68 percent on Friday. At 10:28 a.m. EDT, the metal was trading at US$891 per ounce.

For its part, palladium ticked up 1.43 percent on Friday and was up 1.63 percent overall for the week. 

The metal continues to be supported by high demand and a growing tightening of supply. As of 10:35 a.m. EDT, the metal was trading at US$1,431 per ounce.

Precious metals top news stories

Our top precious metals stories this week include an interview with Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining (TSX:MUX,NYSE:MUX), four gold stocks to watch this year and five gold ETF’s at a glance.

1. Rob McEwen: The Dust is Settling on Major Gold Deals — What’s Next?

The major theme in the gold space lately has been mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with big deals between top miners taking center stage. 

Not all market participants view these transactions as positive, but Rob McEwen, chairman and chief owner of McEwen Mining, is one executive who sees them as good for the industry.

Speaking via phone, he highlighted a number of reasons why he believes this is the case, with the fact that M&A activity could stoke interest from generalist investors rising to the top.

“It’s getting front page news on many forms of media,” he said. “What we were lacking in the industry was much exposure to the broad audience.”

2. 4 Gold Stocks to Watch in 2019

The gold price is down about 4 percent year-to-date, with its main headwind so far in 2019 being strength in the US dollar.  

Even so, many analysts predict that the precious metal will rise later in the year, with stocks increasing in tandem. If that happens, the environment could be positive for investing in gold.

So where should investors look? Analysts at Raymond James recently released a gold stocks list of the companies they believe have high upside potential. Click to see which companies made the cut.

3. 5 Gold ETFs at a Glance

Precious metals-focused exchange-traded funds are fairly common today, and are a good choice for investors who want to invest in gold without personally trading physical gold or gold futures. But which gold exchange-traded funds are the best?

It depends on the investor, but the five gold ETFs in this article may be worth considering — they were the largest gold ETFs by asset value as of April 24, 2019.

Also in the news

Impala Platinum (Implats) (JSE:IMP) announced on Friday that its third quarter platinum production increased despite power cuts and community disruptions at its Marula mine.

The miner noted that platinum in concentrate production was at 350,000 ounces in the quarter ended March 31, up 1 percent from the same period last year.

Refined platinum production during the same quarter edged up by 5 percent to 333,000 ounces.

Despite the increase, rising platinum production was offset by lower output from both the company’s Marula and Zimplats mines.

“While we could manage this at Impala Rustenburg due to the flexibility offered by our integrated mining and processing operations, our other South African operations elsewhere fared less well,” said Implats CEO Nico Muller in a statement.

Additionally, Perseus Mining (TSX:PRU,ASX:PRU,OTC Pink:PMNXF) announced that the government of Côte d’Ivoire has granted an exploitation permit to the company’s Ivorian subsidiary, Perseus Yaouré, to develop and operate the miner’s third gold mine, called Yaouré.

A US$150 million debt finance facility to develop the project followed the permit.

“The granting of the exploitation permit to enable development of the Yaouré gold mine is a major milestone for Perseus that firmly places us on the path to achieving our stated goal of producing more than 50,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of less than US$850 per ounce from multiple mines in several jurisdictions of West Africa,” said Perseus Managing Director and CEO Jeff Quartermaine.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Nicole Rashotte, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.