Despite recent weakness, gold remains thefavorite metal for Adrian Day, chairman and chief executive officerof Adrian Day Asset Management. Gold closed the second quarter around the lowfor the year as the wideningtariff disputes boosted the dollar, Days says. However, in the longer term, atrade war could hurt the greenback, he says. “Short term, many factors arenegative for gold: the strong dollar, monetary tightening and the easing oftensions with North Korea,” Day says. “Gold is also in a seasonally weakperiod. Further out, however, these factors change.” For starters, gold hastraditionally risen in August and September after a weak July and negative Mayand June. “Beyond that, the dollar is vulnerable, and the Fed may slow or evenpause its tightening,” Day says. “A break in the stock market would also helpgold. Already, institutional investors are beginning to hedge their equityexposure with bullion or gold ETFs [exchange-traded funds]. This is in sharpcontrast to retail investors, as suggested by coin sales at 10-year lows.”
By Allen Sykoraof Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Tuesday July 03, 2018 08:26
CME Group metalsvolume averaged 674,000 contracts per day in the second quarter, which was ayear-on-year gain of 27%, the exchange operator reports. Average daily volumefor gold futures and options grew 29% to 383,000 contracts, while this climbed7% for silver futures and options to 115,000 contracts. Copper futures andoptions average volume rose 43% to 146,000 contracts. Meanwhile, the averagemetals volume for the month of May climbed 30% year-on-year to 666,000contracts. CME Group reports that volume in platinum futures hit a record of58,000 contracts on June 22.
By Allen Sykoraof Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
Tuesday July 03, 2018 08:26
Gold holdings of exchange-traded funds have fallen by thelargest amount since near the end of the first quarter, says Commerzbank. TheseETFs trade like a stock but track the price of the commodity, with the preciousmetal put into storage to back the shares. “Gold ETFs saw outflows of 9.1tonnes yesterday, their biggest daily outflow since the end of March,”Commerzbank says.
By Allen SykoraFor Kitco News
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