Precious Metals Price Action Continues To Rise on Equity Selloff

Gold prices edged up on Friday and were on track to rise for the fourth straight week, the longest string of weekly gains since January, as Asian stocks slumped amid increasing worries over the outlook for U.S. corporate earnings and global economic slowdown. We are seeing a pretty good rally in gold since the stock market crash. People are more concerned about the current geo-political risks and gold is being looked at more favorably now than in the past. Financial markets have been whipsawed in recent sessions on concerns over global growth as investors fretted over Sino-U.S. trade frictions, a mixed bag of U.S. corporate earnings, Federal Reserve rate hikes and Italian budget woes. Gold, used as an alternative investment during times of political and financial uncertainty, has gained about 6% after falling in mid-August to their lowest since January 2017 at $1,159.96 an ounce.

Oil Price Goes Down Over Comments Made By Saudi Arabia’s OPEC Governor

As of writing this article, Spot Gold XAUUSD is currently trading at $1236.74 an ounce up 0.37% on the day, while US Gold futures GCcv1 is currently trading at $1238.50 an ounce up 0.51% on the day. Gold markets have entered a new trading zone of $1,228-$1,238 as investors are on mood swings over rout in equity market. The short-term narrative is caught between a hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve and a weaker equity market now. Although the risk-off sentiment buoyed gold prices, traders were cautious ahead of the publication of the U.S. third-quarter gross domestic product scheduled to release at 12:30 GMT today. Meanwhile Spot Silver XAGUSD is currently trading at $14.69 up 0.37% on the day.

Crude oil prices fell on Friday amid prospects of lower demand due to slower global economic growth forecasts and headwinds from bearish equity markets. The key driver behind oil prices in the short run could be the concern about a rising US oil inventory and a lower demand prospect due to a slower global growth forecasted by the IMF. Oil prices look poised to head towards a 3rd weekly loss amidst a slump in global equities and economic growth concerns as Saudi Arabia’s OPEC governor said on Thursday that the oil market could face oversupply in the current quarter. However t he latest slide oil prices is likely to remain short-lived due to looming US sanctions on Iran. Spot US Crude WTIUSD is currently trading at $66.72 per barrel down by 0.18% on the day.