Gold and silver are mixed leading into the European open
London (May 19) Gold and silver are having a mixed start to the session on Wednesday. The yellow metal is trading marginally higher by 0.14% while silver has dropped 0.09% to reach $28.10/oz. In the rest of the commodities complex, copper has dropped -0.81% and spot WTI is down around half a percent.
In the risk markets, the Nikkei 225 (-1.28%), ASX (-1.90%), and Shanghai Composite (-0.57) all traded in the red as risk sentiment took a turn for the worse overnight.
In FX markets, the biggest move was EUR/USD which rose 0.16% as the greenback weakness continues. AUD/USD and NZD/USD traded within their ranges overnight. On the crypto front, BTC/USD continued its demise to trade below $40K.
On the news front, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Kato is talking about adding further areas to the State of Emergency as the nation struggles to deal with the pandemic.
Sticking with COVID-19, Canada-U.S. border restrictions have been extended for another month (to June 21).
European Parliament is set to vote on freezing the China investment deal. With issues to talk about including China's treatment of Taiwan and the Uighur Muslim community.
There have been more good Twitter rumors about the potential restart of the Iran nuclear deal overnight. This comes after a Russian envoy said some positive news was due to come out of talks this Wednesday.
Japan March final industrial production reached +1.7% slightly mission the +2.2% m/m prelim
U.K. April CPI hit +1.5% vs +1.5% y/y expected
U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen said Biden's infrastructure plan will improve the global competitiveness of US companies. The Biden camp was said to have been encouraged by the bipartisan talks yesterday.
Japan are set to expand support for domestic production of advanced semiconductors and batteries. There has been a global shortage that needs to be addressed.
U.S. President Biden has delayed the revamp to Trump's China investment blacklist.
China's top steel-producing hub Tangshan was forced to close due to pollution problems between May 18th -20th.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session data highlights include EU CPI, Canadian CPI, weekly DoE's, FOMC meeting minutes
Fed's Bostic, ECB's Lane, German Buba Vice President Buch, ECB's Enria, Fed's Quarles, and ECB's Panetta are all set to speak at some point today.
KitcoNews
