Gold and silver prices trade marginally lower heading into the European open

London (May 12)  Gold and silver are trading marginally lower leading into the European open this morning. Gold (-0.24%) is hovering at $1832.41/oz while silver is trading -0.78% lower at $27.40/oz. In the rest of the commodities markets, copper is trading 0.20% higher and spot WTI is trading just under flat. 

It has been another heavy session for the Nikkei 225 (-1.61%) and ASX (-0.73%) but the Shanghai Composite (0.56%) managed to trade well. European futures are pointing to a mixed open.

In the FX markets, the antipodeans were the major losers overnight. AUD/USD fell -0.52% while NZD/USD lost -0.58% coming off slightly worse. The dollar index managed to gain 0.17%.

Looking at the news from overnight, there was an escalation in Israel / Gaza conflict and this could cause some flow into safe-haven assets. 

CBA says Australia is most likely to lose its AAA rating.

This morning UK Q1 GDP printed at -1.5% q/q (vs. expected -1.6%, prior +1.3%).  UK manufacturing production (MoM) (Mar) 2.1% vs expected 1.0%.

US SEC says Bitcoin is a highly speculative investment, urges caution and warned hedge funds that trade BTC futures.

OPEC say they are still optimistic about oil demand despite India's severe coronavirus 'challenges'.

ECB's Knot has said the Euro Area recovery is getting stronger and stronger and that high-frequency data is showing the service sector is catching up.

Fed's Brainard says the outlook for the Fed is bright but it is far from reaching its goals and inflation is tough to predict. It's hard to say whether it is transitory or not.

Fed's Harker said the U.S. growth forecasts have been upgraded to 7% before moderating down to 3% next year. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include EU industrial production, U.S. CPI, weekly DoE's and comments from Fed's Harker, Bostic and BoE's Bailey.

KitcoNews