Gold prices fell to an 11-week low on June 10, as oil prices rose on renewed hostilities between the US and Iran, fuelling concerns about inflation and interest rate hikes.
Spot gold was down 1.3 per cent at US$4,206.08 per ounce by 5.58am GMT, after hitting its lowest level since March 23. US gold futures for August delivery shed 1.4 per cent to US$4,228.
“We’re seeing a kind of readjustment broadly in what global central banks are going to do, and there’s been a major hawkish shift,” said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.
The United States on June 9 launched strikes against Iran after US President Donald Trump said Tehran had shot down a US Apache helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they retaliated with attacks against a US base in Jordan and 21 other targets in the Gulf on June 10.
Oil prices jumped 1 per cent, keeping up expectations that interest rates would stay higher for longer.
While gold is seen as a hedge against inflation, higher rates tend to weigh on the non-yielding metal. Traders are now pricing in a more than 70 per cent chance of a US rate hike by December, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Markets are awaiting key US inflation reports this week, including the May consumer price index data later in the day and the producer price index reading on June 11, to gauge the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance.
“If we can break the US$4,100 level, I think the path of resistance fundamentally changes for gold, and we might be starting to look at US$3,500 as the next level into the end of the year,” Spivak said.
Spot silver fell 1.2 per cent to US$64.59 per ounce, platinum dropped 3 per cent to US$1,675.50, and palladium fell 1 per cent to US$1,209.36. REUTERS
