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Gold hits New 2018 Lows for Second Consecutive Trading Session

By:
Colin First
Published: Aug 3, 2018, 06:23 UTC

Gold & Silver on steady decline across the week as spot gold hits new 2018 lows on back to back trading sessions.

Gold Friday

Gold prices were little changed early Friday, having hit a one-year low in the previous session on a resilient U.S. dollar. Spot Gold XAUUSD continues to move on a steady downtrend path touching new 2018 lows on two back to back sessions at $1207.20 on Tursday and $1206.62 on Friday respectively. XAUUSD is currently trading at $1207.97 up 0.02% while US Gold Futures GCcv1 is trading at $1216 an ounce down 0.33% in Asian hours today. For the week, the precious metal was down more than 1 percent, in what could be its fourth straight weekly drop. The dollar stayed firm against the yuan and a basket of currencies after reaching two weeks high as worries about an escalation in trade tensions between the United States and China supported US Greenback. Support for gold disappeared as a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on investor appetite. The greenback was also supported by strong U.S. economic data and outlook for higher interest rates. Higher U.S. rates tend to boost the greenback, in which the metal is priced. Most recent data suggests continued weakness for gold amid a stronger US Greenback.

Precious Metals Lose Luster As Sino-Us Trade War Woes Add Support To USD Bulls

Meanwhile, Asian stocks were under pressure from the latest exchange of trade threats between Beijing and Washington. China vowed on Thursday to retaliate if the United States acted on a threat to raise tariffs on the Asian nation’s exports, fueling fears in financial markets that the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies would escalate. All precious metals are currently headed for weekly losses. Silver market also saw steady decline this week, however the loss in silver was significantly higher when compared to gold. Silver hit this week’s low at $15.216 while the week’s high was at $15.602 which is a 2.475 decrease in value. Spot silver XAGUSD is currently trading at $15.301 with 0.09% decrease in value.

Saudi Arabia is cutting the September official selling prices (OSPs) for all its grades and to all markets except for to the United States, as it aims to entice more buyers as it increases oil supply to offset production and export disruptions elsewhere. The cut in Arab Light prices for September was the second consecutive monthly reduction of the OSP to Asia. In July, while it was opening the taps, Saudi Arabia also cut its official OSPs for most of its grades to the Asian markets for August, in a sign that it wants to attract more customers now that it has raised production. In the coming months, if monthly U.S. production figures continue to show output undershooting expectations, that would have global ramifications. Most analysts still are baking in strong U.S. shale growth figures into their forecasts. If that additional output fails to materialize, the oil market could end up being a lot tighter than we all expected it to be. As of writing this article WTIUSD is trading at $69.67/b seeing 0.17% decrease in value.

About the Author

Colin specializes in developing trading strategies and analyze financial instruments both technically and fundamentally. Colin holds a Bachelor of Engineering From Milwaukee University.

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