Gold Today
New York gold closed Friday at $1,294.00.London opened at $1,282.75 today.
Overall the dollar was weaker against global currencies, early today. Before London’s opening:
The $: € was weaker at $1.1799 after the Friday’s$1.1754: €1.
The Dollar index was weaker at 93.33 after Friday’s 93.47.
The Yen was weaker at 109.76 after Friday’s 109.09:$1.
The Yuan was weaker at 6.6691 after Friday’s 6.6672: $1.
The Pound Sterling was slightly stronger at $1.2995 after Friday’s $1.2975: £1
New York closed $7.00 higher than Shanghai’s close yesterday. Then today sees Shanghai lifting the gold price again. But London pulled it down $6 lower. London and Shanghai see the gold price differently with London being more volatile that Shanghai as you can see above. Shanghai still needs to take gold above $1,300 for the gold price to run higher.
As we said on Friday, “Today and next week become important days for the gold price. It is also the time when North Korea said they would fire a missile towards Guam!”
Silver
Silver closed at $17.07 yesterday after $17.06 at New York’s close Wednesday.
LBMA price setting: The LBMA gold price was set today at $1,281.10 from yesterday’s $1,288.30. The gold price in the euro was set at €1,085.86 after yesterday’s €1,095.59.
Just before the opening of New York the gold price was trading at $1,282.60 and in the euro at €1,087.23. At the same time, the silver price was trading at $17.02.
Gold (very short-term) The gold price should consolidate, in New York today.
Silver (very short-term) The silver price should consolidate, in New York today.
Price Drivers
We are amazed today to find that, fears of war with North Korea are almost off the table and markets are calmed because of it. We looked round to see if these assumptions were due to the North Korean President saying something along the lines that he will not fire the missile towards Guam? No, he hasn’t said anything! Did President Trump say anything? No! But U.S. officials said nuclear war is not a danger. It’s time for a reality check we think and ask, which ‘Officials” are in a position to counter both Presidents? Hence we do not see the market calmness as a result of these official’s statements. We see the market calmness simply calm after the dramas of last week that could easily change back to heightened fears in a heartbeat. But also as we said last week, we do not accept that gold rose on war fears, it was because of the dollar’s ongoing weakness and Asian demand.
But if a missile is fired by North Korea towards Guam then the whole set of global financial markets changes. Gold will certainly rise on war fears then.
But the failure of inflation to rise, alongside disappointing wage pressures is assisting gold’s rise outside of China, where demand is proving a constant. Now add to that a toppy equity market in the U.S. and we could see moves out of equities into gold as well. These elements are not quickly passing features of the financial world. It is on these that the gold price is rising. All this is happening ahead of the start of the ‘Gold Season’ which starts in a couple of weeks from now!
We see the gold price pulling back today because traders are attacking the ‘triple top’ that is in the Technical picture. The week could prove volatile!
Gold ETFs – Yesterday there were no changes in the holdings of the SPDR gold ETF but sales of 0.54 tonnes was added to the Gold Trust yesterday. The SPDR gold ETF and Gold Trust holdings are at 786.869 tonnes and at 213.28 tonnes respectively.
Since January 4, 2016, 162.503 tonnes of gold have been added to the SPDR gold ETF and to the Gold Trust.
Since January 6, 2017, 0.54 of a tonne of gold was removed from the SPDR gold ETF and the Gold Trust on Friday. The gold acquisitions by these two funds in 2017 have returned to the negative and now stand at -1.106 tonnes in 2017.