GOLD PRICES again held tight around $1200 per ounce in London trade Tuesday as the US Dollar retreated on the currency market and global interest rates eased back on a rise in government debt prices.
Asian and European stock markets meantime shrugged off yesterday's drop on Wall Street, taking Japan's Topix to a 7-week high.
Germany's Dax rallied further from last week's 5-month low, and China's Shanghai Composite bounced from its
new 4-year low hit on Monday.
Mocow meantime
blamed Israel for the shooting-down of a Russian military plane near war-torn Syria.
Gold prices have been "battered by a relatively strong Dollar," says the latest analysis from Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi's strategist Jonathan Butler.
"[But] with the market becoming one-sided towards risk assets in the current economic climate, there is a danger that the current US political risks will be overlooked," he warns, saying this "could ultimately damage the Dollar and help precious metals.
"With inflation running at the target of 2% and the Fed running out of runway to raise rates, there is also potentially some support for precious metals as an inflation hedge."
Since the Lehman's crisis of 10 years ago this week, real US Fed interest rates, adjusted for inflation, have moved in the opposite direction to gold prices in more than 70% of all months.
Also looking at the impact of US interest rates on gold, "Additional hikes based upon higher inflation – and so raising only nominal rather than real rates – would not necessarily be a negative development for precious metals," says a research note from Chinese-owned bullion market maker ICBC Standard Bank.
What counts in this month's Federal Reserve meeting, the analysis says, will be any comment around the so-called "natural rate of interest".
"What stands out from a market perspective," ICBC Standard warns, "is that no real expectation for a higher r* is currently priced and that it would be a significantly bearish development for gold prices."
Meantime in No.2 gold consumer nation India – where the current wedding and early festival season is finding weak demand as the Rupee trades at all-time record lows on the currency market – rumors that the
government will act to "curb" imports of non-essential commodities has "sent ripples through the gold industry" says the
Business Standard, with dealers fearing a repeat of the
anti-gold measures taken to cut the country's huge trade deficit in 2013.
"There is not much scope for hike in import duty on gold," ZeeNews
quotes government sources, favoring "some kind of policy measures" to deter imports because "higher import duty on gold may [only] increase smuggling activities."
Illegal flows of gold into India
continue to make headlines, with officials finding over $375,000-worth of bullion hidden on a flight into New Delhi on Tuesday.
