Daily Gold Update

Source:Dana Samuelson, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold closed the New York trading session down 0.2% or $2.70 to $1,472.70 on the February contract after prices were whipsawed Thursday. Early trading saw gold moving to new short-term trading highs just over $1,487 on weaker than expected US producer prices , a higher than expected surge in unemployment claims and new ECB President Lagarde confirmation that the ongoing ECB policy of negative interest rates of -0.50% and QE would remain "highly accommodative."

An hour later President Trump tweeted a trade deal with China was "very close", signaling the looming 15% tariff increase on $160 billion in new Chinese imports set to go into effect on Dec. 15 may be avoided. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported the American side had offered to cut existing tariffs by half and that China may agree to large US agricultural purchase as well. Bond yields rose on the news with the yield on the US 10-year Treasury punching up to a one-month high of 1.89%. Gold fell sharply back to support at $1,465 on the US, China trade deal tweet but inched cautiously higher thereafter. Later in the day Bloomberg reported that a phase-one deal in principal had been reached subject to President Trump’s approval.

Silver and platinum followed gold higher and then lower as the news of the day unfolded. March silver moved over $17.00 to as high as $17.18 before reversing lower while January platinum peaked at $951.40 before moving back down. Despite the corrections lower, both silver and platinum enjoyed small, net gains for the day.

Palladium continued its relentless move higher with the March contract peaking at $1,919.90, its highest price ever, before giving back $5.70 at the New York close. Palladium, a byproduct of the mining of other metals, is used primarily in automobile catalytic converters for gasoline engines. Power outages in South African mines over the last several months have led to production declines of almost 5% for the PGM metals. Palladium is in a supply deficit with new mining unable to keep up with new demand. This has led to a classic shrinking supply versus growing demand equation, leading to record high prices.

At the Comex close: February gold fell $2.70 to $1,472.30; March silver added 10 cents, to $16.95; January platinum picked up $5.30 to $944.80; and March palladium rose $26.80 to $1,914.20 an ounce.