Gold goes down on soaring greenback

On Monday, gold slipped a bit because the USD index rallied to its highest value for more than 17 months, thus affecting gold’s demand.

December delivery gold futures GCZ8 headed south by 0.1% hitting $1,207.90 an ounce, having posted a weekly sink of 2% and marking its lowest settlement since October 10. Besides this, December delivery silver futures SIZ8 headed south by 0.1% hitting $14.130 an ounce after the previous week’s dive of 4%.

A primary indicator of the purchasing power of the evergreen buck against its main counterparts the USD index soared by 0.5% reaching 97.346, demonstrating the highest value since June last year.

Year to date the indicator has rallied by nearly 5.7%, partly underpinned by hopes for further tightening by the key US bank.

The key US financial institution is geared up towards lifting rates next month and then next year. It’s apparent that higher interest rates can back the evergreen buck as well as dull demand for dollar-denominated commodities.

The strengthening of the US currency is affecting the yellow metal, as some financial analysts pointed out. Market participants are currently assured that another rate lift will take place in couple of weeks, followed by hawkish lifts next year. This hope is applying further pressure to the yellow metal, which has now dived below the major level of $1,210, confounding the upbeat signals of the last few weeks.

As for other metals, January delivery platinum futures PLF9 stood still sticking with $860.60 an ounce. Meanwhile, December delivery palladium futures PAZ8 headed south by 0.7% coming up with an outcome of $1,089.90 an ounce. Furthermore, December delivery copper futures HGZ8 tacked on by up to 0.1% being worth $2.687 a pound.

SPDR gold shares GLD along iwht the iShares Silver Trust both dived.