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Gold crept up 0.1 percent this week, reaching $1,210 an ounce. Meanwhile, silver dropped 0.5 percent to close at $16.61 an ounce for the week, while copper dropped and oil rose.
Gold crept up 0.1 percent this week, reaching $1,210 an ounce. Its price stayed relatively steady thanks to a softer dollar, yet overall the metal is on its way to its biggest monthly loss since September.
Part of the reason the yellow metal is down overall for the month is that European shares are trading at almost a seven-year high, and investors are concerned about a Federal Reserve rate hike. Overall, gold has fallen about 7 percent since January.
“If the Fed really hikes interest rates in the second quarter and you can’t really discount that entirely, there is still that shorter-term target that you could go towards $1,150,” Michael Widmer, a strategist for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, told the news outlet.
For its part, silver dropped 0.5 percent to close at $16.61 an ounce for the week.
Meanwhile, coming off a six-week high last week, copper slipped this week on the London Metal Exchange by 0.9 percent to close at $5,834.50 a tonne. The fall came after inventory increases sparked concerns about Chinese oversupply, according to a separate report from Reuters. Chinese copper demand has increased since the country returned to the market after a week of holiday.
“Obviously there’s a bit of a Chinese return-related rebound ahead of the second quarter pick-up in demand,” said Daniel Hynes, a strategist at ANZ. “But also, all the issues around supply disruptions got to a point where they were too hard to ignore and that’s really given confidence to some of these longs to get back into the market.”
Copper dropped 1.16 percent on the COMEX as well, trading at $2.663 at the week’s close, according to FX Street
Finally, Brent crude was up $1.26, closing at $61.32 a barrel, Reuters said. Brent crude saw its first monthly gain since July thanks to strong investing, increased demand and supply interruptions.
“The main event this week has been the widening of the spread between Brent and WTI (U.S. crude),” Ole Hansen, Saxo Bank senior commodity strategist, said. “WTI is still only a few dollars above the lows, but Brent has lifted off.”