London: Gold is holding onto gains that propelled it past $1,500 an ounce while silver trades near a 14-month high.
Both metals have rallied amid worries about the global economic outlook and as central banks around the world continue to cut interest rates. The ongoing trade war between the US and China has also increased demand for haven assets, with traders and analysts in Bloomberg’s weekly survey near-unanimous on the bullish outlook for gold.
Spot gold was little changed at $1,500.93 an ounce at 1:07pm in London. The metal has risen 4.2 per cent this week and is headed for its best week since late June. Spot silver rose 0.2 per cent to $16.9740 an ounce. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is headed for its first weekly decline in four weeks.
“The genie is out of the bottle, and all the people waiting on the sidelines are rushing to buy,” said Adrian Day, president of Adrian Day Asset Management. “Clearly, at some point, the stock market will turn around, the US and China could even make a trade agreement, and things will calm down. Then we shall see some profit taking, but for now, I think gold will continue to rise.”
Further signs of a global economic slowdown were evident on Friday as the UK unexpectedly registered its first economic contraction since the aftermath of the financial crisis. European shares fell with US equity futures, while Asian stocks were mixed as positive sentiment from a strong day on Wall Street was offset by resurfacing trade tensions.
Investors are continuing to flood into exchange-traded funds backed by gold, with holdings rising for a ninth day Thursday to the highest since March 2013. Silver ETFs have also seen large inflows and are near the highest on record. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sees the growth in ETF investment as a key factor behind the bank’s forecast that gold will climb to $1,600 over the next six months.
In other precious metals, platinum declined 0.4 per cent while palladium rose 0.2 per cent.
