By Gold prices inched lower on Tuesday, but remained mired in a range between $1,800 and $1,880 — a range that has held since mid-May.
Price action
August gold
GCQ22,
-0.18%
GC00,
-0.18%
fell $2, or 0.1%, to $1,822.80 per ounce on Comex.
July silver
SIN22,
-1.46%
SI00,
-1.46%
lost 19.8 cents, or 0.9%, to $20.97 per ounce.
September palladium
PAU22,
+0.03%
PA00,
+0.03%
rose $8.60, or 0.5%, to $1,867.50 an ounce.
The most-active October platinum contract
PLV22,
+0.72%
PL00,
+0.72%
rose $14, or 1.6%, to $914.30 an ounce.
September copper
HGU22,
-0.19%
traded at $3.7855 a pound, up 2 cents, or 0.5%.
What analysts are saying
Prices for the precious metal had fallen toward session slows immediately after the release of U.S. consumer confidence data for June, before paring those losses. The data showed a drop in consumer confidence to a 16-month low of 98.7.
“Traders know that it is only a matter of time before the economic data officially confirms that the U.S. economy has fallen into a recession and that headline would spur more interest in a risk-off asset” such as gold, said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a note.
Commodities analysts at Commerzbank attributed Tuesday’s move in gold prices to the rebound in Treasury yields. Bond yields move inversely to prices, and higher yields make gold a less attractive investment by comparison, since buyers of bonds can at least pocket some yield in the form of coupon payments.
Outflows from gold and silver exchange-traded funds also weighed on the precious metals complex.
“Another sizeable outflow from ETFs presumably also put pressure on gold: holdings in the gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg were reduced by a good 6 tons yesterday. The momentum of outflows has picked up pace again of late,” wrote Daniel Briesemann, a Commerzbank precious metals analyst.
Suki Cooper, executive director of precious metals research at Standard Chartered, said gold has been caught in a range as investors digest signs of slowing economic growth, rising inflation and the threat of more aggressive interest-rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
“Gold has been caught within an increasingly narrower range as it toys between risk of faster rate hikes, and prolonged elevated inflation and slower growth,” Cooper said.
Other markets
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose three basis points to 3.22%.
U.S. benchmark stock indexes were mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.71%
up more than 100 points, but the Nasdaq Composite COMP lost nearly 20 points.
The U.S. dollar climbed
DXY,
+0.46%
against a basket of its rivals.
