Gold and silver prices move higher heading into the EU open

London (Apr 6)  Gold and silver have once again pushed higher in the Asian session. Gold is now 0.44% higher and looks likely to attack the previous wave high at $1755.50/oz. and silver has moved back above $25/oz moving 0.73% in the black.

As some of the indices are playing catch up following the bank holidays sentiment in the Asia Pac area was mixed. The Nikkei 225 (-1.30%) took at dive, but the Shanghai Composite (0.05%) and ASX (0.84%) traded well.

In FX markets, the dollar index moved marginally higher in a lacklustre session. The biggest mover for the second day in a row was USD/CHF which pushed 0.18% higher. In the rest of the commodities complex, copper moved 1.21% lower but this was after a decent session yesterday and spot WTI rose 1.13%.

On the news front, the RBA left their cash rate unchanged as expected overnight. later in the year, the bank will consider whether to retain the April 2024 bond as the target bond or to shift to the next maturity.

On the data front, China's Caixin/Markit PMIs for March both came in expansionary territory with services hitting 54.3 and composite at 53.1.

Look out for the banks this morning as Credit Suisse say their Archegos-related loss may be up to $5 billion. There has already been some negative price action in the stock and it will be interesting to see if the market priced this amount in.

The stimulus keeps coming in the UK as the government is about to launch a state-backed loan scheme to help companies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Sticking with the U.K., PM Boris Johnson confirmed that some more restrictions will be eased on 12th April. He also said there is nothing in the data at the moment that makes him think the government will deviate from the current roadmap.

UK retail and investment bank Barclays say the market pricing of the Fed hiking cycle is too aggressive.

World Bank head expects China, the US & other G20 to extend debt service freeze. 

KitcoNews