Mumbai: Gold Price Live held around a near seven-week high on Monday as tensions on the Korean peninsula boosted safe-haven demand for the yellow metal, while the dollar hovered around multi-month lows on weak US economic data.
FUNDAMENTALS
Spot gold hit its highest since June 14 at $1,270.98 in early trade and was at $1,269.70 per ounce at 0055 GMT, little changed from Friday. Gold gained about 1.1 per cent last week for a third consecutive weekly gain.
US gold futures for August delivery rose 0.1 per cent to $1,269.8 per ounce.
The United States flew two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force on Sunday and the US ambassador to the United Nations said China, Japan, and South Korea needed to do more after Pyongyang’s latest missile tests.
North Korea fired a missile on Friday that experts said was capable of hitting Los Angeles and other US cities and the United States and South Korea responded by staging a joint missile exercise.
The US economy accelerated in the second quarter as consumers ramped up spending and businesses invested more on equipment, but persistent sluggish wage gains cast a dark shadow over the growth outlook.
China’s gold output fell by 9.85 per cent from a year ago to 206.542 tonnes in the first half of 2017, state media said on Friday, citing data from the China Gold Association.
Gold prices in India last week recorded the biggest discount in seven months as a rebound in prices curtailed retail demand, while lower premiums in other Asian centers failed to lure customers amid the seasonal slowdown.
Hedge funds and money managers sharply increased their net long position in COMEX gold to a four-week high, in the week to July 25, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday.
The Federal Reserve’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet is not doing a lot to boost the US economy at this time and trimming it gradually is the right thing to do, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said on Friday.