Gold slumps and platinum falls by most ever amid hunt for cash
LONDON – Precious metals took another beating on concerns that a wave of emergency stimulus measures by central banks won’t be enough to improve a rapidly deteriorating economic outlook.
Gold, coming off the biggest weekly drop in almost four decades, extended losses below $1 500/oz as market sentiment soured even after further emergency moves by the Federal Reserve. Platinum tumbled the most on record and silver fell the most since 2011.
The gold market is caught between demand for a haven and a rush to raise cash and cover losses in other markets. While retail dealers from Singapore to the UK recently saw a spike in demand for precious metals, gold exchange-traded funds had their biggest outflow since 2016 on Friday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“We are in a scenario where investors are selling whatever they can,” said Carlo Alberto De Casa, a chief analyst at ActivTrades.
Spot gold dropped as much as 4.2% to $1,465.40 an ounce, reversing earlier gains. The metal lost 8.6% last week, the most since 1983.
The Fed on Sunday slashed borrowing costs to near zero and promised to boost its bond holdings by at least $700-billion, while other central banks have also dramatically stepped up efforts to support economies from the coronavirus crisis.
“Easing is not the medicine as the stock market has clearly signaled,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. Still, gold “will eventually move higher given the inflationary impact of current and future decisions taken by governments around the world.”
OTHER PRECIOUS METALS
Spot silver fell 14% to $12.6133 an ounce, touching the lowest since 2009.
Platinum fell as much as 26% to $564 an ounce, hitting the lowest since 2002.
Palladium was down 10% to $1 626.53 an ounce, reaching the lowest since September.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
