Gold prices fall, trade deal soon

Bullion edged 0.2% lower to around $2,750 an ounce, roughly just $40 short of its all-time high and still set for a fourth straight weekly gain.

The president has identified China, the EU, Canada and Mexico as potential targets for import levies, though there is uncertainty over whether he will follow through with the threats. 

Gold traded at 2,751.44 an ounce as of 10:48 a.m. in London. Silver, platinum and palladium fell. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was relatively unchanged.

Source – Bloomberg

Gold futures tick higher on tariff uncertainty and short-term monetary policy outlook. Futures are up 0.2% at $3,233.60 a troy ounce, near Friday’s record high of $3,263/oz.

The uncertainty both boosted gold’s safe-haven demand and weakened the U.S. dollar as an alternative safe asset, further enhancing gold’s appeal, Commerzbank says.

Source – Wall Street Journal

Sub-Saharan African central banks that have added gold to their reserves in recent years could face price and liquidity crises if the value of the precious metal slides, BMI, a unit of Fitch Group, said on Wednesday.

Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria have been buying gold domestically to beef up their reserves, BMI said, a move accelerated by this year’s broader market volatility stoked by U.S. trade tariffs and other geopolitical risks.

Policymakers in Kenya and Uganda are exploring a move into gold, Rwanda and Namibia have taken active steps towards adding the metal into their reserves.

Governments could also struggle to convert their gold holdings into liquid assets like hard currencies, Gard said, pointing to India and Argentina when they faced acute balance of payments challenges in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively.

Source – Reuters

All existing slots at the Bank of England to withdraw gold bars are booked up as market players race to ship the metal to the United States to take advantage of a surge in gold prices there, an official has said.

“The US gold market has been trading at a premium to the London market,” Dave Ramsden, deputy governor for markets and banking at the central bank, told reporters Thursday. The owners of the gold bars in its underground vaults have been “looking to take advantage of that price differential,” he added.

Meanwhile, gold inventories on the US COMEX exchange — a major market for trading gold, silver and other metals — have almost doubled since the end of October, Commerzbank said in a note Friday.

“The fact that gold is significantly more expensive on the COMEX than (in) other trading centers is likely related to the feared US import tariffs, which could possibly also affect gold,” wrote Carsten Fritsch, a commodity analyst at the German bank. “The deliveries on the COMEX are therefore likely to be primarily driven by concerns about possible supply disruptions.”

Source – CNN

COMEX – Commodity Exchange