Gold Silver Reports – Gold Kiss 4-month High as DollarIndex Slumps to 3 Year-Lows – Gold prices on Monday hit their highest since September, buoyed by a weaker US dollar, which slumped to three-year lows against a basket of currencies.
Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,340.72 an ounce by 0302 GMT, after touching its strongest since 8 September at $1,342.06
Spot gold rose for a fifth straight week last week, gaining 1.4%.
US gold futures were up 0.4% at $1,340.80 an ounce.
“While the weaker dollar remained gold’s primary driver, investors are keeping an eye on the simmeringgeopolitical hot spot in the Middle East,” said Stephen Innes, APAC head of trading at OANDA.
“Iran remains among the most poignant of geopolitical risks this year following President Trump’s decision not to ratify Iran’s compliance on the nuclear deal. Gold investors are likely under-positioned for a significant escalation which could lead to considerable price increase.”
Iran’s president said on Sunday the UnitedStates had failed to undermine a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers, and hailed the accord as a “long-lasting victory” for Iran, state television reported.
US President Donald Trump on Friday delivered an ultimatum to European signatories of the deal to fix the “terrible flaws” of the agreement with Iran, or the United States would pull out.
The dollar index on Monday dropped 0.2% to 90.773, its lowest since January 2015.
The recent drop in US unemployment could spark a surge in inflation that, given the Federal Reserve’s current policy framework, could trigger interest-rate hikes that bring on a recession, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren warned on Friday.
Read More: Silver Futures Major Report By Neal Bhai
Higher rates could dent demand for non-interest-paying gold.
Adding a touch of bullishness to gold was the data from US Commodity FuturesTrading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, which showed that hedge funds and money managers raised their net long positions in COMEX gold and silver contracts in the week to 9 January.
Spot gold may break a resistance at $1,341 per ounce and rise to the 8 September, 2017 high of $1,357.54, as suggested by a retracement analysis, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
Among other precious metals, palladium was down 0.4% at $1,119.59 on Monday, after hitting record highs at $1,126.30 an ounce on Friday.
The metal has seen a sustained rally from high demand in the auto industry amid a supply deficit, analysts said.
Spot silver rose 0.1% to $17.26 an ounce. Platinum was mostly unchanged at $993.15, after hitting its highest since 11 September at $998.50 on Friday. – Neal Bhai Reports
