Gold shook off early losses Tuesday to finish higher, supported by a retreat in the U.S. dollar, despite anxieties about further interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve in the face of high inflation.
Price action
-
Gold for December delivery
GCZ22,
+0.30%
rose $10.80, or 0.6%, to end at $1,686 an ounce on Comex after touching a low at $1,667.50. Prices for the most-active contract had touched their lowest intraday level since Oct. 3, FactSet data show. -
December silver
SIZ22,
-1.73%
shed 12.8 cents, or 0.7%, to close at $19.487 an ounce after finishing at its lowest level since Sept. 30 on Monday. -
December palladium futures
PAZ22,
-1.66%
fell by $17.50, or 0.8%, to $2,150.40 per ounce, while January platinum
PLF23,
-0.21%
gained $3.30, or 0.4%, to end at $899.10 an ounce. -
December copper futures
HGZ22,
-0.10%
added 3.5 cents, or 0.9%, to $3.462 per pound.
What’s happening
“Where gold concludes this week will most likely be influenced by the U.S. inflation data on Thursday,” said Lukman Otunuga, manager, market analysis at FXTM, in market commentary.
“A red-hot CPI report will almost certainly reinforce aggressive rate hike bets, ultimately boosting the dollar and Treasury yields — at gold’s peril,” he said. “Such a development may drag the precious metal towards $1,655, $1,615, and $1,600.”
However, “an inflation report that misses expectations could offer space for gold bulls to fight back, opening a path back toward the psychological $1,700 level,” said Otunuga.
Gold prices found support Tuesday, giving up earlier losses, as the U.S. dollar pulled back, with the ICE U.S. Dollar index
DXY,
down 0.3% at 112.778. Both gold and silver had posted losses on Friday and Monday.
Craig Erlam, a senior market strategist at OANDA, said he wasn’t surprised to see the rally fizzle over the past week, however.
Now that their latest advance has “well and truly wilted,” Erlam wonders how much lower the precious metal will go in the near term as markets brace for the U.S. inflation data and the next Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in November.
“Key levels (in gold) below include $1,640 and $1,620, with $1,600 then the one to watch. If it does manage a recovery, then $1,685-1,690 looks interesting as it’s a level it has repeatedly rotated around in recent months,” Erlam said.
The next Federal Reserve policy meeting on November 2-3.