Commodity Blog

Gold futures have retreated from their recent highs over the last trading week and are now poised for their worst weekly performance since July. The yellow metal tumbled below the key $1,300 threshold on Thursday, but it is posting modest gains to end the trading week.

December gold futures jumped $4.50, or 0.35%, to $1,299.30 per ounce at 14:39 GMT on Friday. After dipping to its lowest level since the end of August, gold prices are on track to suffer a 2.3% weekly loss, which is the second straight weekly decline and the worst weekly drop since the beginning of July.

Silver, the sister commodity to the yellow metal, is trying to muster up a rally to finish the trading week. December silver futures rose $0.01, or 0.07%, to $17.03 an ounce. The white metal is on pace to record a weekly decrease of 3.9%.

The precious metals have come under significant pressure since the end of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. The US central bank stated that it is on track to raise interest rates one more time this year and laid out plans to reduce its $4 trillion balance sheet as of October. Gold is generally sensitive to a rising-rate environment and the tightening of monetary policy because it boosts the opportunity cost and sends investors into yield-bearing assets.

Gold is benefiting on Friday from a lower US dollar as the greenback slipped 0.28%. A weaker US dollar is good for commodities like gold and silver because it makes it cheaper for foreign investors to buy.

Fears over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program have been renewed following US President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly. After the president threatened to “totally destroy” Pyongyang to take down Kim Jong-un, who Trump refers to as “rocket man,” the North Korean regime said that it might detonate a nuclear bomb of “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific.

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