3rdPartyFeeds News

Metals Stocks: Gold prices face headwinds as risk assets score a fillip from retail sales report, talk of coronavirus drug

Gold futures under pressure Tuesday, amid better-than-expected report on U.S. retail sales for May, which helped to boost appetite for assets perceived as risky. Read More...

Gold futures were under pressure again Tuesday, amid better-than-expected report on U.S. retail sales for May, which helped to boost appetite for assets perceived as risky.

Meanwhile, a report of a potential steroidal treatment for the illness derived from the novel strain of coronavirus also gave a boost to assets considered risky.

U.S. retail sales data for May showed that sales activity jumped by 17.7%, the government said Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast an 8.5% increase. The report indicates that U.S. retailers began to recover as the economy started to reopen following record sales declines in the prior two months triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Gold and silver prices are trading near steady in early U.S. trading Tuesday, but have backed down from overnight highs in the wake of a much-better-than-expected U.S. retail sales report for May,” wrote Jim Wyckoff, analyst at Kitco.com, in a daily report.

August gold GCQ20, +0.06% was off $1.50, or 0.1%, at $1,725.70 an ounce on Comex, after the metal fell 0.6% on Monday. Gold futures have been trading in a $1,670 to $1,770 range for about two months now despite a sharp fall in the U.S. dollar DXY, +0.11% against major currencies in that time.

Meanwhile, July silver SIN20, +1.04% added 14 cents, or 0.1%, at $17.54 an ounce, following a Monday 0.5% decline.

Bullion may draw some support from a report that North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in the western border town of Kaesong, suggesting rising tensions in the region between South and North Korea.

Read More

Add Comment

Click here to post a comment