Daily Gold Update

Source:Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold ended nearly flat, edging down less than 0.1% to close above $1,722, as optimism over the lifting of stay-home restrictions in some states was offset by plunging consumer confidence and warnings of potentially higher mortality from COVID-19.

With several states and foreign governments beginning to relax restrictions on commerce, Wall Street initially rallied on hopes that an economic revival might be in the offing. All three major US indexes were modestly higher for much of the day while gold slid to $1,704 as traders shifting into risk assets.

But market action reversed later in the session, with stocks sliding into losses and gold recovering from its earlier slide, as weak confidence data and sobering projections on coronavirus fatalities reinforced the difficulties ahead.

The Conference Board reported consumer confidence suffered its biggest one-month drop in modern times, falling from 118.8 in March to 89.9 in April, with expectations that jobs will be "hard to get" rising to more than one-third of those surveyed. Still, many respondents are optimistic that the worst is already passed.

But as US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million, the model used to predict fatalities led White House officials to warn that the death toll is likely to increase if states reopen prematurely.

Also helping to lift gold from intraday lows, WTI crude rebounded nearly 4% after a Syrian tanker exploded. Gold often trades in sympathy with oil as a hedge against energy-related inflation.

The other precious metals were mostly lower, with silver and palladium sliding 0.1% and 0.9%, respectively, while platinum added 2.4%.

At the Comex close: June gold dipped $1.60 to $1,722.20; July silver lost a penny, to $15.33; July platinum gained $18.60 to $795.60; and June palladium fell $16.10 to $1,878.70 an ounce.