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Strengths
- The best performing metal this week was palladium, up 6.48 percent, notching its best weekly advance since June. While global car sales are weak, loadings for their catalytic converters are going up with regulatory requirements. Gold traders and analysts were spilt on their outlook for the yellow metal next week after this week saw big price swings due to U.S.-Iran tensions escalating then subsiding. Gold futures swung between gains and losses on Friday as traders assessed slower-than-expected hiring and wage growth against low unemployment. Bloomberg reports that nonfarm payrolls rose 145,000, below expectations of 256,000, and average hourly earnings climbed 2.9 percent – the first below 3 percent reading since July 2018.
- The Perth Mint reported that gold coin and minted bar sales in December totaled 78,912 ounces – a big jump from November’s 54,261 ounces. BullionVault said the number of first-time precious metals investors using the service grew 25 percent to a two-year high in 2019. The growth was led by clients in the Eurozone. The Royal Mint announced that its bullion division saw a 572 percent boost in sales revenue and a fivefold increase in the average order value over the past weekend compared with the prior weekend, reports Bloomberg. Turkey’s gold reserves rose $2.4 billion from the previous week to bring the central bank’s holdings to $27.5 billion as of January 3.
- Newmont Goldcorp announced on Monday that it is streamlining its name after last year’s megamerger with Goldcorp. The company will now go by simply Newmont, and has promised shareholders a 79 percent increase in its quarterly dividend. Centamin reported that its fourth quarter gold output at the Sukari mine was up 51 percent from the same period last year for a total of 158,387 ounces. The company said its 2019 total gold production was up 2 percent from the previous year. Bloomberg reports that Sibanye Gold Ltd has exercised its option to buy an additional 168 million shares in DRDGold to take controlling shareholding interest in the surface-tailings producer.
Weaknesses
- The worst performing metal this week was platinum, down just 0.28 percent on somewhat of a choppy trading week for the metal. Spot gold surged as much as 2.4 percent on Tuesday to cross the $1,600 an ounce mark for the first time since 2013 after news of the U.S. killing a top Iranian general spurred a retaliatory strike on U.S. interests. Geopolitical tensions are historically positive for the yellow metal as it is seen as a perceived safe haven asset. Relations between the U.S. and Iran cooled later in the week and gold subsequently fell back toward $1,540 an ounce. David Govett, head of precious metals trading at Marex Spectron Group, says the “focus will now return to economic drivers as opposed to conflict worries.”
- The All India Gems and Jewellery Domestic Council said this week that the total business volume of gems and jewellery industry has posted a 30 percent decline in terms of demand over the last six months. Chairman Anantha Padmanabhan claims that due to the increase in customs duty, goods and services tax there was an increase in gold smuggling and customers are opting to purchase gold instead from neighboring countries.
- Evolution Mining forecasts that its gold production for the full year will be at the low end of 725,000 to 775,000 ounces. The miner reported second quarter all in sustaining costs rose 9.9 percent year-over-year to A$1,069.
