South African Rand strong

South Africa’s rand strengthened on Monday, as gold hit a fresh high and optimism grew over the prospect of an agreement between the two biggest government partners on the budget.

At 0728 GMT, the rand traded at 18.2375 against the dollar, about 1.1% stronger than its previous close.

Gold prices touched an all-time high on Monday as investors stressing over a global trade war and economic slowdown from the world’s biggest economy turned towards the safe-haven asset. South Africa is a major producer of the precious metal.

Source – Reuters

Similar Posts

  • /

    Central banks back at it, jewelry fell

    Central banks worldwide are on track to buy 1,000 metric tons of gold in 2025, which would be their fourth year of massive purchases as they diversify reserves from dollar-denominated assets into bullion, consultancy Metals Focus said.

    The price rally has so far kept purchases by central banks, a crucial category of demand, unaffected with the first-quarter buying in line with the 2022-24 quarterly average, Metals Focus said in its annual report on Thursday.

    Jewelry demand for bullion has been hit hard by the price rally. Gold jewelry fabrication fell 9% to 2,011 tons in 2024 and is expected to deliver a 16% slump this year with India and China accounting for much of this decline.

    Source – Reuters

  • /

    Opinion piece, Gold impacted by panic buying

    Some finance experts in Simpsonville said they’ve seen a surge in people investing in gold. They said it follows fears over the economy slowing. 

    Co-owner of JEHM Wealth and Retirement Eric Lahaie told 7NEWS the value of gold has increased by more than 30 percent in the last six months. He emphasized that it is largely because of panic buying.

    “The appreciation is all that you’re going to get out of it. It doesn’t produce a dividend. It doesn’t generate interest like a stock, or a bond will do. So, you don’t get that advantage. And then, as I said earlier, it kind of moves in big jumps, and then flattens out for a long time,” said Lahaie. 

    “If you buy it in a brokerage account, when you sell gold, your gains are taxed at your ordinary income up to 28 percent,” Lahaie also said. “Versus, if you sell stock, as long-term capital gain, you’re going to be taxed somewhere between 15 and 20 percent on the high end. So, that’s kind of a disadvantage for gold.” 

    Source – KOLR Springfield

  • /

    President Trump wants to see Fort Knox gold for himself

    “We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far. And we’ve just started. We’re actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there, because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold,” Trump said.

    “I think the gold is probably there. It’s probably almost certainly there,” David Sacks, Trump’s crypto czar, told Fox News last week, though he still agreed with the president’s calls to investigate the matter.

    “Nobody thinks this is a crazy idea to go check because we don’t know,” Sacks added, arguing that “we cannot fully trust that our gold is still in Fort Knox” because of the “corruption” in Washington.

    Source – ABC News

  • /

    Global silver market under stress

    A surge in rates to borrow the precious metal has become the latest sign of alarm, with anxiety building over the impact of further tariffs from US President Donald Trump. That’s sparked a dash to ship silver into the US in a bid to capture premium prices in New York, possibly causing a squeeze in London.

    “Should the long-fabled ‘silver squeeze’ materialize, this slower tradeflow will be a key contributor to prolonging” any potential disruption BMO Capital Markets analyst George Heppel said in a note. That’s because it would take time for silver stockpiles to flow from the US back to London, he said.

    Source – Mining Weekly