Gold prices on Wednesday held near eight-week highs hit in the previous session on uncertainty over US president-elect Donald Trump’s economic plans, after the dollar slid on his comments that the strong greenback was “killing us”
FUNDAMENTALS
* Spot gold was firm at $1,216 per ounce by 0110 GMT. Bullion hit an eight-week high of $1,218.64 in the previous session.
* US gold futures were up 0.3 per cent at $1,216.10 per ounce.
* Britain will quit the EU single market when it leaves the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday in a decisive speech that set a course for a clean break with the world’s largest trading bloc.
* In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Trump said the strength of the US dollar against China’s yuan “is killing us”.
* Fed Chair Janet Yellen will have an opportunity to lay out her thinking with speeches on monetary policy on both Wednesday and Thursday this week.
* The United Nations expects global economic growth to rise to 2.7 per cent this year and 2.9 per cent in 2018, and said Brexit and US President-elect Donald Trump’s tax policies could have adverse effects.
* Striking workers at Yamana Gold Inc’s El Penon mine in Chile have reached a wage agreement with the Canadian miner, allowing the mine to reopen on Wednesday, a union leader said on Tuesday.
* India’s rough diamond imports fell 4.7 per cent in December from a year ago to $1.398 billion, a trade body said on Tuesday, as the scrapping of high value currency notes forced many small polishing units to idle their units.