Gold Today –New York closed at $1,256.10 yesterday after closing at $1,256.30 Tuesday. London opened at $1,253.65 today.
Overall the dollar was slightly stronger against global currencies early today. Before London’s opening:
– The $: € was stronger at $1.0664 after yesterday’s $1.0670: €1.
– The Dollar index was slightly stronger at 100.60 after yesterday’s 100.57.
– The Yen was slightly weaker at 110.77 after yesterday’s 110.70:$1.
– The Yuan was weaker at 6.8995 after yesterday’s 6.8892: $1.
– The Pound Sterling was stronger at $1.2475 after yesterday’s $1.2428: £1.
Yuan Gold Fix
| Trade Date | Contract | Benchmark Price AM 1 gm | Benchmark Price PM 1 gm |
| 2017 4 6
2017 4 5 2017 4 4 |
SHAU
SHAU SHAU |
/
280.13 / |
/
280.03 / |
| $ equivalent 1oz @ $1: 6.8995
$1: 6.8892 $1: 6.8836
|
/
$1,264.24 / |
/
$1,264.28 / |
Please note that the Shanghai Fixes are for 1 gm of gold. From the Middle East eastward metric measurements are used against 0.9999 quality gold. [Please note that the 0.5% difference in price can be accounted for by the higher quality of Shanghai’s gold on which their gold price is based over London’s ‘good delivery’ standard of 0.995.]
The Shanghai Gold Exchange reopened today and was trading at 280.6 towards the close.
This translates into $1,264.97. New York is trading at a $3.87 discount to Shanghai and London opened at a $6.32 discount to Shanghai.
LBMA price setting: The LBMA gold price was set today at $1,253.75 from yesterday’s $1,252.50.
The gold price in the euro was set at €1,174.58 after yesterday’s €1,173.96.
Ahead of the opening of New York the gold price was trading at $1,252.45 and in the euro at €1,173.81. At the same time, the silver price was trading at $18.23.
Silver Today –Silver closed at $18.30 yesterday after $18.31 at New York’s close Tuesday.
Price Drivers
In the last day, the gold price broke down to $1,244 before recovering back above $1,250. So the support still holds at $1,250, but it has to break through the 200-day moving average of around $1,260 before rushing higher. So we should be ready for a gold price move either way today.
The Fed Minutes stated that, by traditional valuations, the equity markets in the U.S. are too high. So we watch the S&P 500 to see what impact that will have. They also indicated that they may reduce the Fed’s Balance Sheet later in the year. While two interest rate hikes in the future are already priced in the monetary tightening is not. It may well result in the yield curve rising across its spectrum.
In Europe, Mario Draghi cautiously implied that the fear of inflation has passed and while risks remain to the downside he was more confident that growth across the E.U. economy is becoming positive. To us there are so many continuing risks in Europe that one needs to continue to question the future of the E.U. economy. What we did find somewhat disturbing in what he said, was that the more positive shape of the economy was due to two factors, monetary policy and the oil price fall. Oil market commentators are pointing to rising oil prices [but not back to triple digit levels] If oil prices do rise significantly, [which does seem unlikely as it will unleash more supplies] the fragile E.U. economies will suffer alongside economic recoveries across the globe.
Top of today’s events is the meeting between President’s Xi of China and President Trump. If President Trump’s election promises are to be a guide the meeting should end with potential confrontations and massive tariffs on Chinese imports into the U.S. A sobering fact on this issue is that 73% of shoes sold in the U.S. are made in China [as an example of what could happen]. Or will we see a dampening of election ardor?
With the Obamacare repeal failing, what will happen to potential tax cuts? If Trump fails to get these through, we are back to the last 8 years of gridlock in government. Unless Trump has a major victory we cannot expect to see the vibrant growth Trump promised. As it is the dollar is expected to decline gently from now on. If his failure on Obamacare is reinforced with more failure, the dollar’s fall will accelerate against gold.
Gold ETFs – Yesterday saw no purchases or sales into or from the SPDR gold ETF but sales of 0.04 from the Gold Trust. Their respective holdings are now at 836.765 tonnes and 199.81 tonnes.
Julian D.W. Phillips
GoldForecaster.com | SilverForecaster.com | StockBridge Management Alliance