Gold en route to weekly gain, digs in for U.S. inflation data
· Gold rose on Friday and was set to post its first weekly rise in four, propped up by a subdued dollar as investors awaited data that could shed more light on the U.S. inflation picture.
· Mixed signals from Federal Reserve officials on the interest rate path saw gold prices slide 6% last week, then recover this week by 0.9%.
· By 0706 GMT, spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,779.50 per ounce while U.S. gold futures were 0.2% higher at $1,780.20.
· “Gold prices are congested in a tight range,” said Hareesh V., head of commodity research at Geojit Financial Services. “Inflation concern is the main reason why prices are not plummeting from this point.”
· Gold is viewed as a hedge against higher inflation that could follow stimulus measures. On investors’ radar is U.S. producer price data due later in the day.
· In the medium term, a recovering U.S. economy should strengthen the dollar, further easing gold’s safe-haven appeal, Hareesh added.
· The dollar index was headed for a weekly decline after rising nearly 2% last week on the Fed’s hawkish signal.
· Fed chief Jerome Powell, however, said earlier this week that inflation would not be the only determinant of interest-rate decisions, calming investors worried about policy tightening.
· Spot gold may break a support level at $1,769 per ounce and fall into a range of $1,734-$1,744, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
· Palladium rose 0.6% to $2,655.72 per ounce, while platinum was 0.7% higher at $1,099.98. Both metals were on track for their best week since March.
· Silver was up 0.8% at $26.14 per ounce.
· Fed's Kaplan sees 'upside risk' to inflation forecast
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said on Thursday he sees “upside risk” to his forecast for 3.4% inflation this year and 2.4% inflation next year, as supply-demand imbalances may persist longer than anticipated.
· Biden says more Americans will die as delta variant spreads
President Joe Biden said Thursday that Covid deaths in the United States will continue to rise due to the spread of the “dangerous” delta variant, calling it a “serious concern.”
“Six hundred thousand-plus Americans have died, and with this delta variant you know there’s going to be others as well. You know it’s going to happen. We’ve got to get young people vaccinated,” Biden said at a community center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The variant, Biden said, is more easily transmissible and potentially deadly, and is “especially dangerous for young people.”
The president warned that Americans who are still unvaccinated are especially at risk.
· The UK’s Covid vaccine program and delta surge means it’s now a test case for the world
· Singapore May manufacturing jumps 30% y/y, biggest gain in 10 years
Singapore's industrial output beat forecasts to rise 30.0% year-on-year in May, its fastest pace in about 10 years, buoyed by a low base effect due to the city-state's coronavirus lockdown measures last year, official data showed on Friday.
Economists had expected a 23.6% increase, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll. The rise was the biggest since November, 2010.
· Indonesia’s health-care workers struggle with a ‘double burden’ as cases rise, humanitarian organization says
Medical workers in Indonesia are grappling with the pressure of caring for Covid-19 patients while quickly vaccinating the country’s residents as infections increase, according to a global health and humanitarian relief organization.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters
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