GOLD PRICES popped higher but silver struggled to follow Thursday lunchtime in London after new US data said the world's largest economy grew a little faster than previously estimated at the end of 2020 but only thanks to a slowdown in price inflation.
Gold erased all but $5 of this week's earlier $20 drop, rallying to $1740 per ounce.
Silver prices rose to $25 per ounce after touching the lowest in more than 2 months at $24.67, down 17.7% from start-February's
sudden Reddit Ramp spike to the highest since 2013.
That pushed
the Gold/Silver Ratio of the 2 formerly monetary metals relative prices back above 69, the highest valuation for 'safe haven' gold over more industrially-useful silver the end of January.
Government bond prices rose further following that update, extending the last week's retreat in longer-term borrowing costs but keeping 10-year US Treasury yields near 1.60% per annum – their highest since last February, eve of the Covid Crisis, when reached a fortnight ago.
The Dollar meantime rose on the FX market, reaching its highest since November on its
trade-weighted currency index, up 3.6% from January's 2-year low.
"With the capitulation in oil, Dollar strength and yields remaining high, the metals
appear to have their work cut out over the coming sessions," says a trading note from Swiss refining and finance group MKS Pamp.
Platinum prices rallied with silver but also lagged gold on Thursday, halving this week's plunge from $1200 to $1145 per ounce, the lowest in 2 weeks.
Geopolitical tensions continued to rise in East Asia meantime, as
the Philippines sent navy vessels on what it called "sovereignty patrols" in the South China Sea, where a Chinese militia fleet of 200 boats has surrounded the Whitsun Reef (also known as the Julian Felipe Reef), claimed by Beijing as part of its territory.
"
Those ships are not fishing," said Philippines' Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, rejecting Beijing's explanation for the Chinese fleet.
"Why are they lashed together?"
US financial regulator the SEC said Wednesday that it is now implementing a law, passed at the end of Donald Trump's presidency, which
could expel Chinese companies from the New York stock market if they don't share audits of their non-US activities.
New York equities opened lower on Thursday, following Asian and European stock markets down.
