Gold futures headed higher for a third consecutive session Wednesday, a day after climbing within 2% of their record settlement high.
Price action
-
The June gold contract
GC00,
-0.11% GCM23,
-0.11%
climbed $4.20, or 0.2%, to $2,042.40 an ounce on Comex, trading at the highest level since early March of last year. The record-high settlement based on the most-active contracts stands at $2,069.40 on Aug. 6, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data. -
May silver
SI00,
-0.42% SIK23,
-0.42%
traded little changed at $25.10 an ounce. -
June palladium
PAM23,
-0.94%
dropped $4.20, or 0.3%, to $1,451.50 an ounce, while July platinum
PLN23,
-2.54%
declined by $6.60, or 0.6%, to $1,022.40 an ounce. -
Copper for May delivery
HGK23,
-0.21%
traded flat at $3.971 a pound.
Market drivers
Gold prices held above $2,000 on Wednesday, hitting levels not seen in 13 months “thanks to a weaker dollar and speculation around the [Federal Reserve’s] tightening cycle nearing an end,” Lukman Otunuga, manager for market analysis at FXTM, told MarketWatch.
The ICE U.S. Dollar index
DXY,
was up slightly at 101.60 in Wednesday dealings but has lost around 0.9% in the week to date.
Dollar-denominated gold prices “blasted through the psychological $2,000 level on Tuesday as signs of cooling in the U.S jobs market prompted investors to question whether the Fed could keep raising rates,” Otunuga said.
On Wednesday, data from the ADP National Economic Report showed U.S. private payrolls climbed by 145,000 in March. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast a gain of 210,000 private-sector jobs.
Also Wednesday, a barometer of business conditions at service-oriented companies fell to 51.2% in March from 55.1% in February, according to the Institute for Supply Management.
The U.S. Labor Department Tuesday reported that job openings fell to a 21-month low of 9.9 million in February.
“With weak economic data fueling recession fears, this further stimulated appetite for safe-haven gold,” Otunuga said.
Gold has the “potential to test the 2020 high if the pending U.S. jobs report on Friday points to further signs of a weakening labor market,” he said.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
