Trump’s decision to hold off on Mexico tariffs for now boosts global equities
Gold futures dropped Monday to mark their first loss in nine sessions after encouraging global trade headlines drove investors away from the metal and into perceived riskier assets such as stocks, and the U.S. dollar climbed.
“A corrective and profit-taking pullback from recent gains” put pressure on gold Monday, with “improved trader/investor risk appetite to start the trading week … also a negative for the safe-haven metals,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com.
August gold GCQ19, +0.26% fell $16.80, or 1.3%, to settle at $1,329.30 an ounce, after gaining roughly 2.7% last week, its biggest weekly rise since March 23, 2018, according to FactSet data, based on the most-active contracts. Most-active contract prices settled Friday at the highest since Feb. 20. The metal’s decline Monday followed a run of nine consecutive session gains—the longest since January 2018.
Gold had been rising amid growing expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates possibly more than once this year, providing a supportive environment for the metal to gain from flight-to-safety bets, as tensions over trade policy between the U.S., China and Mexico have cast doubt on global economic growth.
Gold got a lift Friday after unexpectedly weaker U.S. jobs data appeared to make it easier for the Fed to cut interest rates.
A decision by the U.S. to not impose import tariffs on Mexico late Friday helped drive up global stocks, including U.S. benchmark stock indexes Monday. Also helping, Group of 20 finance leaders on Sunday vowed to protect global growth from disruptions such as trade tensions.
George Gero, managing director at RBC Wealth Management, said he expects gold to be “range bound for now,” between $1,315 and $1,350 as “there are enough worries globally on the economic and political fronts.”
In Monday dealings, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.02% rose 0.2% to 96.762, after falling Friday and marking a weekly loss of 1.2%. After falling sharply Friday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.40% was up 5.7 basis points at 2.138%. Both factors dented appetite for dollar-denominated gold.
July silver SIN19, +0.31% fell 39.2 cents, or 2.6%, to $14.639 an ounce, after adding 3.2% last week. July copper HGN19, +0.81% rose 1.3% to $2.662 a pound. July platinum PLN19, +0.25% fell 0.1% to $805.20 an ounce. September palladium PAU19, -0.49% tacked on 2.3% to $1,386.80 an ounce.
The SPDR Gold Shares exchange-traded fund GLD, -1.00% was down 1.2%.