Commodity Blog

Gold prices have slipped further today, holding at six-month low prices. Despite a stock market and dollar index dip, which would normally signal a move higher for the yellow metal, gold prices also headed down, thanks, at least in part, to the overall strength of the greenback.

Gold is usually considered a safe haven for investors, when the dollar weakens and stock markets lose ground. However, the strength of the greenback has prevented such counter swings in recent months.

Tensions have continued to mount between the USA and China, recently. Earlier in the week, US President, Donald Trump, threatened to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. It is expected that China will strike back with similarly sized tariffs against US goods. What’s more, the EU said that they would be imposing tariffs on US goods from Friday, June 22. The trade dispute has seen stocks fall. However, despite reaching a new three-year high earlier in the day, the dollar index finished down slightly, helping relieve any pressure on gold and causing it to end the day on a high.

The US dollar index ended the day at 94.75, a decline of 0.4%. The dollar index is a measure of the value of a single dollar against a basket of 6 foreign currencies, and it gives an overall value of the currency’s performance in the global currency market.

August gold futures were trading at $1,270.70 per troy ounce at 19:50 GMT, a decline of 0.28%. Silver is trading slightly higher at $16.365 a troy ounce, an increase of 0.1%.

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