Copper, gold prices start new week cautiously

The Comex copper price edged higher in the US on Monday, October 17 amid Chinese economic fears and the dollar maintaining strength over the weekend.

Copper for December settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ticked up 0.15 cents or 0.1% to $2.1120 per pound. Trade has ranged from $2.100 to $2.1200.

Comex gold for December delivery fell $1.20 or 0.1% to $1,254.30 per oz. The contract is still trading around its lowest since June.

Throughout the past few weeks, poor Chinese import and export data has unsettled markets, with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) responding by setting the yuan parity rate at 6.7379 today, the lowest since 2010.

The central bank, which fixes its official rate daily, will allow a move of up to 2% in either direction. But the main currency in focus is the dollar, which was last at 97.91 against a basket of currencies – near its highest since early March.

“Base metals start[ed] the week cautiously after absorbing recent downside pressure exerted by US dollar currency gains raising costs to non-US denominated investors,” a trader said. “Broadly base metals continue to look vulnerable.”

Although gold is hovering around a multi-month low, holdings in the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracked by FastMarkets have made steady gains, with 8.4 tonnes added over the weekend.

Holdings in the gold ETFs have increased 19 tonnes since the start of the month, which is more than in the whole of September, Commerzbank noted.

“Gold prices remain vulnerable while they trade in a tight range after the recent fall below $1,300,” Metal Bulletin’s William Adams said. “Another leg lower cannot be ruled out although the market has had to absorb a lot of fund selling so there appears to be good underlying buying around, albeit not from the funds trading Comex.”

In data today, the Empire State manufacturing index and industrial production numbers from the US are due.

In European markets, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 were down 0.3% and 0.2% respectively while the dollar softened by 0.3% to 1.1001 against the euro.

In other commodities, light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex were up 16 cents or 0.3% at $50.91 per barrel while Comex silver for December settlement was last trading at $17.460 per oz, up 1.9 cents.

(Editing by Mark Shaw)

The post Copper, gold prices start new week cautiously appeared first on The Bullion Desk.

from The Bullion Desk http://ift.tt/2dYTdFs
via IFTTT