Gold falls for the week after a dip below $1,800, as silver settles its lowest price in 2 years
Gold futures on Friday briefly dipped below the key $1,800-an-ounce level — posting a loss for the week, while silver prices dropped to their lowest finish since July 2020.
The weakness in precious metals comes after gold shed 2% of its value during the month of June.
Price action
- Gold futures GCQ22,
+0.63% GC00,+0.63% for August delivery fell $5.80, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,801.50 an ounce on Comex, marking the lowest most-active contract finish since February and ending 1.6% lower for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Prices touched a low of $1,783.40, the lowest since January. - Silver futures SIU22,
+0.96% SI00,+0.96% for September delivery fell 68 cents, or 3.4%, to $19.667 an ounce for their lowest settlement since July 2020. Prices lost 6.9% this week. - Platinum futures PLV22,
+0.70% PL00,+0.70% for October delivery fell $24, or 2.7%, to $871.30 an ounce, down 3.6% for the week. - Palladium futures PAU22,
-0.08% PA00,-0.08% for September delivery rose $22, or nearly 1.2%, to $1,938.10 an ounce, ending the week 4.5% higher. - Copper futures for September delivery HGU22,
+0.25% HG00,+0.25% fell 11 cents, or 2.9%, to $3.604 per pound, settling at the lowest since February 2021. Prices lost almost 3.7% for the week.
What analysts are saying
As commodities continue to weaken and recession fears batter markets, several commodity analysts said that the technical action in the gold market suggests that the metal will continue to slide.
Gold has managed to get support from buyers on a dip below the $1,800 level in the last six months but “this time, buyers may come to the rescue much later,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro.
The latest financial market dynamics — falling equity prices and yields — “suggest the markets are banking on a recession,” he said in emailed commentary.
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Data Friday show that the ISM barometer of American factories fell 3.1 points to a two-year low of 53% in June in another sign the U.S. economy is slowing.
Meanwhile, “central banks are only picking up speed in tightening monetary policy, creating pressure on long-term inflation expectations,” said Kuptsikevich. “In such an environment, demand for gold as insurance against inflation promises to decline in the coming weeks.”
On the industrial metals side, a team of analysts at Commerzbank said the easing of China’s COVID restrictions had failed to bolster demand for copper, which is trading at its weakest level in 17 months, as fears of slowing global growth continue to weigh on industrial commodities.
Silver has fallen even more sharply than gold because it has characteristics of both a precious metal and an industrial metal. The excess decline in the price of silver has sent the ratio of gold to silver prices rise to its highest level in two years.
“Besides the falling gold price, silver is being additionally depressed by the very weak base metals prices — this is because silver is not only an investment metal but to an equal extent also an industrial metal,” said the Commerzbank team in a research note.
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