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The gold price edged lower on Friday and was headed for a weekly loss after a North Korean missile test brought little reaction from investors.
The gold price edged lower on Friday (September 15) and was on track for a weekly loss.
North Korea launched another missile test overnight, but markets were muted with some profit taking from investors.
“After the muted reaction to North Korea’s missile test, we saw investors seizing the opportunity to take profits from the swollen equity market, while shunning safe-haven assets,” said Adrienne Murphy, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.
Strong US inflation data also put the yellow metal under pressure, as it raised concerns of another interest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve later this year.
“There are a couple of issues pushing and pulling at the market. The reaction to the missile launch this morning has been a bit negated by that better-than-expected (U.S) inflation number,” said ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes. “I think the market is increasingly focusing on the Federal Reserve and its probability of another rate hike this year,” he added.
The Fed will meet again on September 19 to decide whether it will raise interest rates again in 2017. In general, higher interest rates increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Even so, many market participants are still bullish on the yellow metal.
“After several weeks with higher closing prices, it’s not abnormal to see the gold price take a breather,” said Nico Pantelis, head of research at Secular Investor. “Keep in mind we’re still trading strongly above the $1,300-level, so we wouldn’t read too much into this ‘down week.’”
Meanwhile, Haynes said that gold needs to break above $1,340 per ounce to get “any sort of upward trend.” As of 1:00 p.m. EST on Friday, the gold price was at $1,322.82.
Looking over to silver, the white metal was on track for a weekly decline after touching a nearly five-month high earlier this month. As of 1:00 p.m. EST on Friday, the white metal was at $17.67 per ounce. Meanwhile, palladium was down 0.5 percent on Friday, trading at $918 per ounce, while platinum dropped 0.8 percent to hit $970.80 per ounce.
On the base metals side, copper dropped to a four-week low on Thursday (September 14), but rebounded early on Friday. Three-month copper on the LME was up 0.1 percent, at $6,510.25 a tonne.
Lastly, spot oil edged lower on Friday, but stayed on track for its biggest weekly gain in two months. OPEC’s expectations of higher global demand and the cartel’s production decline in August supported prices. October West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange climbed 0.1 percent, to $49.95 a barrel, while Brent crude for November delivery on London’s ICE Futures Exchange rose 0.4 percent, to $55.69 a barrel.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.