BULLION LATEST 03/10: Gold stays under pressure on dollar strength

The spot gold price was quoted at $1,269.65-1,267.05 per oz as of 04:30 BST, down $1.85 on the previous session’s close. Trade has ranged from $1,268.40-1,272.95 so far today, of which the low was the lowest since August 16.

• The dollar, which was already seeing support from expectations of a US interest rate rise in December, rose further due to strong US economic data released on Monday.
• “The dollar on the rise, higher equity prices and higher bond yields are weighing on gold,” ANZ Research noted.
• “Do watch for data performances into the end of the week though, as September’s payrolls number may represent headwinds for both equities and currencies in the USA with soft figures expected,” Jingyi Pan, market analyst at IG, said. The US employment data are due this Friday.
• The violence-marred Catalan referendum in Spain and a mass shooting in Las Vegas, USA by a gunman which killed more than 50 did not boost haven demand for gold this morning.

Silver, PGMs

• In the other precious metals, the spot silver price fell $0.008 to $16.555-16.60 per oz. Platinum increased $2 to $910-915 per oz while palladium was also up $1 at $908-913 per oz.
• There is no trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange as Chinese markets are closed from October 2-6 due to China’s week-long National Day holiday.

Currency moves and data releases

• The dollar index was up 0.24% to 93.82 as of 04:27 BST after reaching as high as 93.89 earlier on Tuesday, which was the highest since August 17.
• In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price fell 0.27% to $55.86 per barrel as of 03:29 BST.
• In US data on Monday, the country’s ISM manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for September was at 60.8, higher than both the expected reading of 57.9 and August’s print of 58.8. Final manufacturing PMI for September was close to expectations at 53.1, while August construction spending rose 0.5% month on month, also largely in line with expectations. ISM manufacturing prices for September came in at 71.5, higher than the forecast reading of 64.5.
• In EU data on Monday, EU final manufacturing PMI was recorded at 58.1 for September, up from 57.4 the previous month. Spanish, French and Italian manufacturing PMI were all higher while Italian manufacturing PMI was unchanged at 56.3.
• The economic agenda is light today with mainly UK construction PMI and Europe’s producer price index due later.
• In addition, US Federal Open Market Committee member Jerome Powell is speaking in Washington DC, USA.