Gold price falls from a more-than-6-year high, but aims for a third weekly rise in a row
New York (Aug 16) Gold for December delivery GCZ19, -0.84% on Comex fell $7.40, or 0.5%, to $1,523.80 an ounce after settling at $1,531.20 on Thursday, the highest most-active contract settlement since April 2013. September silver SIU19, -0.69% was off 2.4 cents, or 0.1%, to $17.19 an ounce.
Read: Why gold’s ‘strong undercurrent’ has some analysts eyeing $2,000 an ounce
Gold is up around 1% for the week and have rallied 6% so far in August as an intensifying U.S.-China trade war and growing worries over the global economy saw investors pile into haven assets. The related rally in U.S. Treasurys, sending down yields, further reinforced gains for gold, analysts said, by reducing the opportunity cost of holding the metal.
U.S. consumer sentiment data Friday, which revealed a decline to 92.1 in August from 98.4, failed to provide support for haven gold. July housing starts fell 4% to an seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.19 million, but building permits rose 8.4% to 1.34 million.
Meanwhile, it isn’t just retail and institutional investors boosting gold, said Christopher Louney, analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
“Central banks have been adding to their reserves for some time and the official sector at large has favored the metal, among other things, amid de-dollarization efforts,” he said, in a note.
Trade-war worries and other risks make the desire more acute in some regions, but most central banks look for the official sector to hold the same or more gold over the next year, he said, citing a World Gold Council survey.
“Overall, we remain of the view that official sector buying should remain robust and surpass the 500 ton level again this year. We view the sector as arguably more supportive for sustainable gains in sentiment than simply tightening supply and demand fundamentals, but in any case — it looks very supportive,” Louney said.
In other metals trade, October platinum PLV19, +0.20% fell 70 cents, or 0.08%, to $841.30 an ounce, with prices looking at a weekly decline of 2.6%. September palladium PAU19, +0.10% rose $5.40, or 0.4%, to $1,444 an ounce, set for a 1.7% rise for the week.
September copper HGU19, -0.23% fell nearly a penny, or 0.2% to $2.589 a pound, with prices trading about flat for the week.
Exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Shares GLD, -1.00% fell 0.6%, paring its weekly loss to around 1.2%.
By 11:25am EST spot gold was down $12 to $1,509, spot silver slid 11 cents to $17.12.
MarketWatch
