Gold shines in spite of Dow Jones flying high

The Dow Jones continues to fly high as it climbed to fresh all-time levels to 29,348.10 in New York. The higher than expected housing starts numbers as well as renewed consumer buying in the US further underlined the increased risk taking appetite among investors. These strong headwinds coupled with the signing of the first phase of the US-China trade deal failed to deter gold. In fact, the yellow metal withstood it all and ended the day in London higher at $1,557.6 per ounce (London pm fixed). Though it ended slightly lower for the week in New York in the $1,555-56 per ounce region, gold’s resilience stood out during the day. The big star of the day, however, was palladium as it scaled not only fresh all-time high levels for itself at $2323 per ounce, but it has within a month surpassed both gold and platinum’s all-time high levels, while gold’s levels of $1,926 per ounce was overtaken in December, it crossed platinum’s all time high level of over $2200 per ounce it attained in 2008. The yellow metal now looks at the BoE, BoC, ECB as well as the IMF to come out with their policies and numbers to chart its own course.

In the domestic markets, both gold and silver pushed forward as both opened higher and then went further to close at Rs.39,969 per 10 gms and Rs.46,555 per kg, respectively. Gold gained by Rs.69, the white metal added a further Rs.285 per kg to its price. With the rupee not able to hang on to its gains, the precious metals were benefitted further. With the Union budget round the corner the gold markets can only hope for status quo and no further rise in tariffs. Any duty cuts would be nothing short of a miracle.