By Gold prices posted a a sixth straight losing session on Monday — its longest losing streak since early July, as the rising dollar and higher Treasury yields continued to weigh on precious metals.
Price action
Gold futures
GCZ22,
-0.79%
for December delivery declined by $14.50, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,748.40 per ounce on Comex, the lowest most-active contract finish since July 27, FactSet data show. The loss was the sixth in a row for gold, the longest daily losing streak since the seven-session fall ended on July 6.
Silver futures
SIU22,
-1.04%
for September delivery lost 19 cents, or 1%, to $18.878 per ounce as losses in silver continued to outpace losses for gold. The precious metal was down a sixth straight session, its longest consecutive run of losses since early May.
Palladium
PAU22,
-7.10%
for September delivery fell $149.60, or 7%, to settle at $1,981.80 per ounce, the lowest in more than a month. Platinum
PLV22,
-2.44%
for October delivery fell $20, or nearly 2.3%, to $868 per ounce.
Copper for September
HGU22,
-0.44%
delivery was off by a penny, or nearly 0.4%, to $3.6515 per pound.
What analysts are saying
Carlo Alberto De Casa, an external market analyst at Kinesis Money, said the dollar’s rebound over the past week has created a “challenging scenario for precious metals.”
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
+0.83%,
a gauge of the dollar’s strength against six rivals, was up nearly 0.8% at 108.975, nearing a multi-decade high reached last month.
“If the dollar and Treasury yields continue to trend higher, it is onlya matter of time before gold retests the 2022 lows,” analysts at Sevens Report Research wrote in Monday’s newsletter.
Investors may get hints from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the plan for interest rates when he delivers remarks from the Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. on Friday.
Read the Fed Jackson Hole preview: Powell to stress a recession won’t stop Fed’s fight against high inflation
“Markets are now pricing the interest rates to be in the region of 3.5 – 3.75% by the end of this year. Therefore, it is not a surprise that in the last few trading days we have seen a challenging scenario for precious metals,” De Casa said.
Meanwhile, copper was also lower to start the week “on the same dismal datathat weighed on energy” — the recent soft economic data from China, said analysts at Sevens Report Research.
Still, some upbeat economic data from the U.S. helped prices for the industrial metal pare most of its losses last week.
“Copper prices are in a near-term uptrend…but we will be watching support near $3.50 closely as a break below would be a negative macroeconomic signal,” the Sevens Report analysts said.
Also on Comex, palladium was a standout, down 7% for the session to its lowest finish in more than a month with strength in the U.S. dollar also leading to significant falls in both palladium and sister metal platinum, said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, in a market update.
