GOLD PRICES sank to new 6-year lows against the Dollar in London trade on 'Black Friday', dropping 1.1% inside 20 minutes as Western equities rallied following the sharpest drop in China's stock market since this summer's crash.
With China's financial regulator now investigating the country's top 3 brokerages, the SSE Composite Index lost 5.5% for the day, after Haitong Securities joined Citic and Guosen in saying it is under formal investigation for breaching unspecified rules.
Mining giant Anglo American (LON:AAL) then fell to new record lows in London,
down 6.7% at one point, as base metal prices fell further with crude oil.
Falling through last week's low at $1065 to hit $1053 per ounce, Dollar gold prices have now lost more than 45% from the all-time record of September 2011, hitting the lowest level since January 2010.
Euro gold prices also fell over 1%, dropping through €1000 per ounce to erase the last of 2015's strong earlier gains.
Silver also fell but stayed firmer again, holding 10 cents per ounce above Monday's new 6-year lows and trading above $14.00.
Investors in precious-metals backed trust funds last week pulled out money
at the fastest pace in 4 months, analysis from Bank of America Merrill Lynch says.
Out of 10 signs of capitulation investors might look for in the gold market, says the latest
Atlas Pulse report from ex-HSBC wealth manager Charlie Morris, only the positioning of speculative traders in Comex futures and options currently looks "bullish".
"[The] relationship between gold and commodities is the most bearish of all ten," he goes on. Because with the broad commodity complex implying "fair value" in gold at $675 per ounce, this ratio "won’t be satisfied until gold touches that 2008 low."
"We [were] keeping an eye on the US Dollar as a possible catalyst," said a
technical gold price analysis Wednesday from bullion bank Scotia Mocatta's New York team, written before yesterday's Thanksgiving holiday.
A rise in the Dollar "would put downside pressure on gold, with a break of $1066 yielding initial $1045, which is the 2010 low."
Looking at the gold price's 2015 downtrend, "[a] move towards lower [channel] limit at $1045 and even $1030 – the highs made in 2008 – can't be ruled out," said a techncial analysis last week from French investment bank and London bullion market maker Societe Generale.
In contrast to Friday's China data, UK economic growth during Q3 was
confirmed at 2.3% annualized by the Office for National Statistics' new GDP estimate.
Growth in business investment was more than doubled from the ONS' previous figure, up to 6.6% per year – the best in 2015.
But the UK's trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to a series record of 1.5% of GDP – the highest number since at least 1997.
Gold priced in Sterling today flirted with last week's 3-month low at £700 per ounce.
Having previously refused to join the US-inspired 'Black Friday' retail discounting, UK supermarket chain Asda today cut the price of
unleaded petrol below £1 per litre – a price last seen during the financial and commodities crash of 2009.
