GOLD PRICES jumped to 8-week highs versus a rising Dollar on Wednesday as new data showed US wages remain sluggish while President Trump
repeated his willingness to use nuclear weapons against North Korea after Pyongyang threatened to strike the United States' bomber base on Guam.
Primarily used in diesel catalysts to clean engine emissions, platinum extended its outperformance of the other precious metals, rising to its highest price since mid-April at $980 per ounce.
"It was a generally
orderly ascent for bullion," says Swiss refining and finance group MKS Pamp's trading team of the gains immediately following North Korea's comments about Guam and Trump's first reply, "punctuated by a brief stop-loss run [for bearish traders closing their bets] through Tuesday's high print."
"I think this is going to continue to provide a little bit of support," Reuters quotes Australian bank ANZ's analyst Daniel Hynes, "but not enough to push prices significantly higher from here."
But "the [gold] market is certainly not positioned for some form of attack or, God forbid, war," says David Govett in his latest trading note for brokers Marex Spectron.
"Back in January 1991, in the run up to the first Gulf war, gold had steadily risen for months. The very day the [US-led coalition] attack was launched, the price fell $40 in a straight line.
That "very quick 10% move," says Govett, "prov[ed] the old adage of buy the rumour, sell the fact."
New data today said China's consumer-price inflation missed analyst forecasts with its
slowest July reading since the global economic slump of 2009 at 1.4% per year.
