Gold and silver edge higher leading into the European open
London (Feb 7) Gold (0.21%) and silver (1.13%) are starting the week on the front foot heading into the European open. In the rest of the commodities complex, copper has fallen 1.25% while spot WTI is 0.33% lower.
Indices in the Asia Pac area were mixed as China came back after a public holiday. The Nikkei 225 (-0.70%) and ASX (-0.13%) both fell but the Shanghai Composite rose just over 2%. Futures in Europe are indicating a positive open.
In FX markets, commodities currencies performed well. The biggest mover was AHD/USD which rose 0.33%. In the crypto space, BTC/USD rose 0.71% overnight.
News from the weekend and overnight:
ECB's Kazaks says A July rate hike would imply extremely quick, unlikely pace of tapering.
ECB's Knot sees the first interest rate hike in Q4 2022.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry says Both sides should address issues on basis of mutual respect.
U.S. officials say "patience wearing thin" in trade talks with China.
U.S. national security adviser says the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be any day now.
South Korea will create a database of chip engineers to discourage poaching by China firms.
The Chinese city of Baise (3.7m population) in lockdown after an Omicron outbreak.
U.K. January Halifax house prices +0.3% vs +1.1% m/m prior.
Germany December industrial production -0.3% vs +0.4% m/m expected.
Japan December preliminary leading indicator index 104.3 vs 103.1 expected.
China Caixin/Markit PMIs Services January 51.4 vs prior 53.1.
Australia Retail Sales (ex Inflation) +8.2% q/q for Q4 2021 (vs. est 7.8% & prior -4.4%).
Australia ANZ job advertisements survey for January: -0.3% m/m ( prior -5.5%).
Australia services PMI for January 56.2 (prior 49.6).
Look at the rest of the session highlights including comments from ECB's Lagarde and a meeting between U.S. President Biden and Germany's Scholz.
KitcoNews
