• Gold futures rallied Wednesday, with fresh U.S. political worries lifting prices to their highest settlement of the month. The latest concerns come after a New York Times report said President Donald Trump tried to influence an FBI probe into links between his inner circle and Russia.
• Gold for June delivery GCM7, +0.04% gained $22.30, or 1.8%, to settle at $1,258.70 an ounce. The settlement was the highest since April 28, according to FactSet data. Prices also tallied a sixth straight session climb—their longest since early August—and scored the largest one-day dollar and percentage gain since March 16.
• July silver SIN7, -0.18% jumped 15.9 cents, or 1%, to $16.906 an ounce, also the highest finish so far in May.
• “Back-to-back salacious stories in the Washington Post and New York Times on President [Donald] Trump has the potential to sidetrack Trump’s growth agenda,” including tax cuts, Obamacare rollback and regulatory reform, Michael Armbruster, principal and co-founder at brokerage firm Altavest, told MarketWatch. “This is negative for the U.S. dollar on several levels, and is bullish for gold.”
• The president in February asked then-director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. James Comey, to shut down an investigation into the actions of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn a day after Flynn’s resignation, according to a New York Times report Tuesday. The White House on Tuesday denied the report, while the Times said Comey wrote memos after every meeting and phone call with Trump to provide a paper trail of his attempts to influence the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe.
• “Safe-haven assets have caught a bid as markets have become increasingly concerned by the maverick actions of Donald Trump,” said Richard Perry, a Hantec Markets analyst, in a note. “This has got commentators making comparisons to [President Richard] Nixon’s Watergate scandal, and markets are responding,” he added.
• U.S. equities also traded sharply lower following the renewed political turmoil, prompting investors to take refuge in the perceived safety of gold.
• “The political mess in the U.S. is finally impacting U.S. and global markets,” said Mark O’Byrne, research director at GoldCore. “Trump tremors appear to be impacting markets and a ‘Trumpquake’ could lead to a new bout of risk aversion.”
Reference: Market Watch
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