Gold and silver prices are mixed leading into the EU open

London (Apr 19)  Gold and silver have started the new trading week mixed. Gold great run last week has continued as the yellow metal trades 0.24% higher while silver moved 0.24% in the red. 

Risk sentiment overnight was slightly positive. The Shanghai Composite was the outperformer and traded 1.51% higher and the Nikkei 225 (0.01%) and ASX (0.03%) traded just above flat.

In the FX markets, there was not a whole lot of movement. USD/JPY was the biggest mover dropping 0.20%, followed by GBP/USD which traded 0.11% higher. In the rest of the commodities markets, copper has a great session overnight rising over 2% and spot WTI fell 0.11%.

In terms of news, the Japanese final industrial production for February beat last months number to hit -1.3% (prior) -2.1% m/m.

China’s State Planner says in Q1 approved 16 fixed-asset investment schemes in the nation worth 45.4 billion yuan.

There was a rumour circulating that US President Biden will accept a 25% corporate tax rate (instead of 28%).

It was also reported that US Senate Republicans could be supportive of a smaller Infrastructure Bill. Not to many details have been released but maybe we could hear more about this when the US market opens up.

Bitcoin has fallen 13% since hitting its all-time high on 18th April. There was a 6.30% fall yesterday the move could be due to some unverified chatter on Twitter (@Fxhedgers) that claimed that the U.S. Treasury Department could be looking to crack down on financial institutions for money laundering using cryptocurrency.

Chinese authorities have given domestic and international banks permission to import large amounts of gold into the country.

Fed's Kaplan said he can see unemployment nearing 4% but the end of the year although the jury is out in regards to the rise in inflation. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include EU construction output, Canadian housing starts and the German Buba monthly report.

KitcoNews