Weekly Round-Up: Gold Price on Track for Second Weekly Gain

The gold price was on track for its second weekly gain early Friday (December 22), despite firmness in equities and the dollar.
As of 12:11 p.m. EST, the yellow metal was changing hands at $1,274.90 per ounce, up from this week’s low point of $1,259.40 seen on Tuesday (December 19).
“(We are seeing) normal market activity ahead of the holiday weekend. Expect some profit-taking to be seen from bargain-hunters who bought at the start of the week at the $1,254 level,” Mun Chun Loh, director of private wealth at Singapore’s GoldSilver Central, told Reuters.

Equities and dollar were strengthened this week after the Senate and House of Representatives voted in favor of a sweeping US tax bill. President Donald Trump has called the bill “the largest tax cut in the history of our country,” and it is the biggest change to the country’s tax system in decades.
That said, it’s unclear whether sentiment on the bill will stay the same. “The U.S. dollar didn’t see much of a rally on the tax vote and I don’t think that bodes well for 2018,” Bill Baruch, president of Blue Line Futures, told Kitco. He thinks the dollar will sink in the new year, which will be good for gold.
For its part, silver fared much the same as gold this past week. As of 1:05 p.m. EST on Friday the white metal was at $16.32 per ounce. It briefly touched $16.09, its lowest point this week, earlier in the day.
On the base metals side, copper prices reached a two-month high on Friday, with three-month copper on the LME hitting $7,129.50; it ultimately closed up 0.5 percent, at $7,124 per tonne. The metal was boosted by strong global growth, as well as data out of China.
“There’s been stronger-than-expected (property) data out of China, we’ve seen some good data (from) the U.S. property market, plus tax reform (was passed by the U.S. Congress),” said Carsten Menke, head of commodities research at Julius Baer (VTX:BAER).
Finally, oil prices were on a tear this week, with Brent crude reaching its highest level since June 2015 on Thursday. It gained 0.53 percent to settle at $64.90 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe that day. Meanwhile, US crude futures closed up 0.46 percent on the NYMEX, at $58.36 per barrel.
Prices were down slightly on Friday, but still near Thursday’s highs. The fuel is seeing support from comments indicating that any exit from OPEC’s production cuts will be gradual. Saudi Arabia, an OPEC member, and Russia, which is not a member, have both made such comments.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.