Gold prices fixed at Friday’s benchmark auction in London with a gain of 1.4% for the first week of 2017, retreating from yesterday’s 1-month highs as the US Dollar rallied following mixed US jobs data.
Gold prices traded around $1175 per ounce late Friday afternoon in London, some $10 below Thursday’s high, while silver held at $16.25 – some 3.6% above last week’s finish to 2016.
Thursday saw the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEArca:GLD) – the largest gold-backed exchange-traded trust fund – shrink even as bullion prices rose once again, with shareholders liquidating for the 27th in 38 sessions since Donald Trump won the US election, reducing the quantity of bullion needed to back the GLD’s shares to a new 9-month low of 813.6 tonnes.
The GLD has now lost 15 tonnes – equivalent to almost 2 days of global gold mining output – since bullion prices bottomed at $1125 per ounce, their lowest in 10 months, on 20th December.
Since then, traders betting that prices would fall further after the Federal Reserve followed Trump’s victory with its second hike to US interest rates have lost 10% on the ProShares UltraShort Gold ETF (NYSEArca:GLL).
“Most factors that boosted precious metals in the first half of last year are very likely to remain relevant throughout 2017,” says the latest Precious Metals Weekly from specialist analysts Metals Focus – “the most important [being] concerns [over] the Fed’s interest rate policy.”
The most bullish 2016 average price forecaster by $20 per ounce at $1225, analyst Joni Teves of Swiss financial group and bullion bank UBS was today declared the winner of last year’s predictions competition for the London Bullion Market Association.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
