• Gold hit its highest in over a year on Friday as the dollar sagged after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data and as festering tensions over North Korea stoked safe-haven demand.
Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,352.91, as of 0723 GMT. Earlier in the session, it marked its strongest since August last year.
It was up over 2 percent for the week, on track for a third weekly gain.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery rose 0.7 percent to $1,359.50.
• “Lingering North Korean tensions and a general U.S. dollar, sell-off propelled gold to new 2017-highs overnight. Gold continues breathing thin air at these rarified levels with the next technical target at $1,375.00,” said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA.
• “Looking at the hurricanes, the damage is expected to be huge and because of that safe-haven flows into gold, the Japanese yen and Treasuries have been seen of late,” said OCBC analyst Barnabas Gan.
“The very strong yellow metal price is due to safe-haven flows. Some of the gold-strength is very much due to the ongoing North Korean tensions as well. The risk for intensified conflicts is there,” Gan said.
• “Gold prices rallied as weaker-than-expected economic data provided some doubt as to the next rate hike by the Federal Reserve,” ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes wrote in a note.
Higher interest rates tend to boost the dollar and push up bond yields, putting pressure on gold by increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.
• Spot gold may break resistance at $1,350 per ounce and rise more to the next resistance level at $1,358, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
• Meanwhile, silver gained 0.4 percent to $18.15 an ounce. Early in the day, it touched $18.20, its best since mid-April.
• Palladium added 0.6 percent to $961.00 an ounce, but was set to record its first weekly decline in seven weeks.
• Platinum climbed 0.3 percent to $1,018.00 an ounce, after earlier hitting its best since March.
Reference: Reuters
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