Gold futures declined on Tuesday, with the precious metal poised for its lowest finish in nearly four months as equity benchmarks in the U.S. flirt with records and government bond yields advance, reflecting growing appetite for assets perceived as risky over so-called havens.
Gold for June delivery
on Comex fell $13.40, or 1%, to $1,277.90 an ounce, near its intrasession nadir, with a settlement at that level representing the lowest finish for the most-active contract since late December, according to FactSet data.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
edged 0.1% at 96.999 in Tuesday trading. A stronger buck can make commodities priced in the metal more expensive to buyers using other currencies.
Arguably, the most substantial drag on demand for metals may be a shift toward stocks, that has come as the Federal Reserve and other central bankers have adopted a more accommodative posture in monetary policy, highlighted by the U.S. central bank suggesting that it was unlikely to lift interest rates in 2019. That stance has helped to push yields of benchmark government debt higher, with the 10-year Treasury note
yielding 2.57%. Rising yields can undercut demand for bullion because the commodity doesn’t carry a coupon.
That environment of lower rates has been supportive of stock buying and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
the S&P 500 index
and the Nasdaq Composite Index
were all near all-time closing highs in Tuesday trade.
That said, bullish investors believe that a number of unresolved political issues — including Britain’s protracted attempts at exiting from the European Union and U.S.-China tariff negotiations — across the world as latent catalysts for gold gains in the near term.
“With lingering concerns over slowing global growth, US-China trade developments and Brexit among the many other geopolitical risk factors straining sentiment, the options for equity bulls look limited,” said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at FXTM, in a daily research note.
Other metals saw mixed trading, with May silver
down 0.4% at $14.92 an ounce and May copper
flat at $2.935 a pound. June palladium
tacked on 0.2% to $1,337.20 an ounce, after losing 1.2% on Monday, while July platinum
shed 0.8% to $887.70 an ounce.
Among exchanged-traded funds, SPDR Gold Shares
fell by 1%.
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