MTS Help Center

Gold jumped to its highest price since February 25 on Wednesday as falling U.S. Treasury yields and dropping global equity markets provided support. The catalyst behind the moves are surging coronavirus cases which revived fears about the global economy.

·         Gold was last up 0.9% at $1,792.77, having earlier hit its highest in nearly two months at $1,797.55.

·         U.S. gold futures settled up 0.8% at $1,793.1.

·         “Gold’s pain over the last couple of months has been the rising Treasury yields and now that has pretty much been alleviated,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

 

“The current outlook for the global economy is still mixed... You’re going to see a much more cautious approach in the next quarter and that’s probably going to see gold start to see some safe haven flows,” Moya added.

·         Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields languished below 1.6%, reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold, while the dollar ticked lower.

·         Market participants await a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday and a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.

 

·         Gold Price News and Forecast: XAU/USD wavers around $1,800 as mixed clues probe two-month high

 

Gold prices seesaw around $1,794, after rising to the highest since February 25, during the initial Asian session on Thursday. The yellow metal rose for the second consecutive day, recently struggling, during Wednesday’s rise to the multi-day top. The Bank of Canada’s (BOC) tapering gained the bull’s attention but recent challenges to the risk, mainly from the coronavirus (COVID-19), geopolitics and fiscal fronts test the upside ahead of the key European Central Bank (ECB) meeting.

 

A longview on gold and precious metals

The precious metals complex and especially gold is fascinating many investors. Not surprisingly, some myths formed around the asset class. There is a widespread belief that precious metals are a safe haven and protect against inflation. That’s true over the long run but can be costly on short- and medium-term timeframes.

 

·         Silver rose 2.3% to $26.47 per ounce.

·         Platinum was 1.9% higher at $1,210.03.

 

·         Palladium hits record

Auto-catalyst metal palladium hit a record high on Wednesday fuelled by supply concerns and wider gains in precious metals prices, with gold jumping more than 1%.

Palladium surged to an all-time high of $2,891.20 per ounce and was up 4.3% at $2,880.10 per ounce at 1:41 p.m. EDT(1741 GMT).

“We’re looking at pretty decent automotive and industrial use for this catalyst,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities, adding that with a very tight market projected, it would be difficult to source the metal.

Prices of palladium, used in catalytic converters to clean car exhaust fumes, have risen 24% since Russia’s Nornickel , the world’s largest producer, partly suspended operations at two of its mines on Feb. 24.

There might be technical price corrections but given the robust fundamentals for palladium, a big adjustment to the downside is highly unlikely, Melek said.

 

·         Biden to announce tax credit for businesses giving paid leave for Covid vaccinations and recovery

President Joe Biden will announce a tax credit for employers offering Covid vaccine-related paid leave.

The tax credit for small- and medium-sized business will fully offset the cost of giving employees paid time off to get inoculated and recover from side effects, administration officials told reporters.

Biden in a speech will tout that the U.S. is set to hit 200 million Covid shots administered since he took office.

 

·         U.S. economy on a solid footing, coronavirus still top threat: Reuters poll

The U.S. economy will grow at its fastest annual pace in decades this year and outperform most of its major peers, with the outlook upgraded sharply, but another COVID-19 surge was the biggest risk over the next three months, a Reuters poll showed.

 

·         CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:

Global Cases: 144,425,076

Global Deaths: 3,071,038

 

No.1 - 3

U.S. Cases: 32,602,501 (+65,057)

U.S. Deaths: 583,330 (+876)

 

India Cases: 15,924,806 (+315,802)

India Deaths: (+2,102)

 

Brazil Cases: 14,122,795 (+71,910)

Brazil Deaths: 381,687 (+3,157)

 

No. 38

Japan Cases: 541,496 (+4,342)

Japan Deaths: 9,710 (+39)

 

No. 106

Thailand Cases: 46,63 (+1,458)

thailand Deaths: 110 (+2)

 

·         U.S. vaccination pace holds above 3 million shots per day for two weeks straight

The U.S. vaccination pace has held above 3 million shots per day for two weeks straight, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Tuesday.

About 40% of Americans have received at least one shot, CDC data show, and roughly 1 in 4 are fully vaccinated.

 

·         EU countries ready to start using J&J shot as deliveries resume

 

·         India reported its highest daily toll of 1,761deaths from COVID-19

 

·         Canada and the United States extended a land-border closure for non-essential travelers

 

·         Australia says it cancelled state deals on China’s Belt and Road over ‘national interest’

 

·         Ukraine to allies: West must act now to ensure no new Russia military offensive

 

·         Important disagreements between U.S. and Iran in nuclear talks persist - U.S. official

Important disagreements between the United States and Iran persist after the latest round of indirect nuclear talks in Vienna this week, with the negotiations still far from conclusion and the outcome uncertain, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday.

The main differences between Washington and Tehran are over what sanctions the United States would need to remove and what steps Iran would need to take to resume its obligations to curb its nuclear program, the U.S. official told reporters in a conference call. He added that talks were likely to be a multi-round process.

 

Reference: CNBC, Reuters, FXStreet, Worldometers