Gold prices were headed for a modest weekly loss on Friday, while recession worries continued to weigh on copper, poised for its biggest one-week fall in over a year.
What are prices doing?
- August gold GC00, -0.15% GCQ22, -0.15% slipped $1.40, or less than 0.1%, to $1.828.40 an ounce, following Thursday’s drop of 0.5%. That took it to $1,829.80 per ounce, and was the lowest settlement for a most-active contract in just over a week as of Thursday, according to FactSet data.
- July silver SI00, -1.01% SIN22, -1.01% fell 19 cents, or 0.9%, to $20.855 per ounce, after a drop of 1.8% to end at $21.042 per ounce on Thursday.
- Platinum PLN22, +0.67% for July delivery fell rose $7.10, or 0.8%, to $911.50 per ounce.
- Palladium PAU22, +2.24% prices for September delivery rose $35.90, or close to 2%, to $1,860 per ounce.
- July copper HGN22, -0.16% fell 2 cents or 0.5%, to $3.7185 a pound. On Thursday, prices slumped 5.2% to $3.739 a pound, marking another settlement at the lowest in about 16 months, FactSet data show.
What analysts are saying
Gold is headed for a weekly loss of around 0.7% as of Thursday, dragged lower by equities as investors have fretted that aggressive monetary policy tightening from the Federal Reserve will slow the economy down. That has driven the dollar higher.
Silver is looking a bigger weekly loss of around 3.4%, with losses stemming from Federal Reserve Chair’s Jerome Powell’s assertion on Capitol Hill this week that the central bank will get inflation under control and keep raising rates to meet that goal, Rupert Rowling, market analyst at Kinesis Money, told clients in a note.
“It was the prospect of central banks needing to adopt more hawkish monetary policies that sparked silver’s initial price plunge back in mid-April. From that point on the precious metal has struggled to find any support with the metal now trading close to its lowest in almost two years,” he said.
Meanwhile, global recession fears have hit copper hard this week, with the commodity poised for its biggest weekly loss in more than a year, down 7.1% as of Thursday. That would be the largest weekly drop since June 2021, according to FactSet.
“Chile’s mining giant Codelco has reached an agreement with workers to end a strike that could have led to a price supportive reduction in supply. Below $3.86 the next key level of support can be found at $3.50/lb, the 50% retracement of the 2020 to 2022 rally,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, in a note to clients.
The economic spotlight for Friday will be on final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, which is part of the reason the Fed hiked by 75 basis points instead of 50 at its June meeting.
That data is due at 10 a.m., along with June final five-year inflation expectations and new home sales for May. Investors will also hear from St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, due to speak at 7:30 a.m. Eastern and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, at 4 p.m. Eastern.