Gold Spot Price

China’s gold reserves rose to 73.61 million fine troy ounces at the end of February from 73.45 million at the end of January, as the central bank kept buying the precious metal for a fourth straight month.

“The PBOC’s purchases are an important factor underpinning gold, so a continuation of its buying in February could help to build further strength behind the gold price,” said Frank Watson, market analyst at Kinesis Money.

“Unlike investors, central banks are relatively price insensitive to gold and tend to buy as part of a restructuring of their reserve holdings,” Watson said.

Source – Reuters

“Gold bars are bought as a hedge” against tariff-related downside risks to stocks as well as U.S. and global economic growth, commodity analysts at Citigroup said in a research note on Friday after the U.S. stock market’s close. “In precious metals, we see gold moving higher very near term” to $3,000 per ounce, they wrote.

“Gold has soared to another record high today amid a further ratcheting up in trade tensions,”  said Joe Maher, assistant economist at Capital Economics, in a note Monday. “Concerns that gold may get caught in the trade-war crossfire may also have led U.S. investors to buy up gold in order to get ahead of any future tariffs that might affect U.S. gold imports.”

Source – Market Watch

Australia has not escaped the threat of increased tariffs on its exports to the U.S., but it does have one world-class industry which is reveling in commodity market confusion, gold.

Both Citi and RBC Capital Markets see the gold price continuing to rise while the Resources Department of the Australian Government is forecasting an increase in national output from 286 tons this year to 309 tons next year, cementing Australia’s position as the world’s third biggest gold producer after Russia and China.

Gold’s rise in U.S. dollars is magnified in Australia by the currency effect with an exchange current rate of US63 cents delivering an Australian gold price of A$4903/oz, a record which easily eclipses all earlier gold booms.

Source – Forbes