Silver prices climb after Monday’s 1.8% decline
Gold ends slightly lower on Tuesday, kept under pressure by a stronger dollar as well as gains in the benchmark U.S. stock indexes.
Investors continued to gauge trade tensions and eyed a rise in equities, a day after a volatile session left U.S. stocks sharply lower.
December gold GCZ8, -0.50% lost $2.30, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,225.30 an ounce on Comex, following a decline of 0.7% Monday. December silver SIZ8, -0.67% however, tacked on 2 cents, or 0.1%, to $14.462 an ounce, to recoup a small portion of its 1.8% loss a day earlier.
Gold prices “have eased a tad as the ‘big’ dollar finds support on worries over slowing economic growth and fears the Sino-U.S. trade war could intensify again,” said Dean Popplewell, vice president of market analysis at Oanda, in a note.
The dollar strengthened Tuesday, with the ICE U.S. dollar index DXY, -0.13% a gauge of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, up 0.4% to 96.995. A stronger dollar can be a negative for commodities as it makes them more expensive to users of other currencies.
Global equities appeared to find limited solace in remarks by President Donald Trump, who said he thought Washington and Beijing would make a “great deal.” At the same time, Trump told Fox News he had billions more in import duties at the ready to slap on Chinese goods if an agreement can’t be reached. U.S. stock indexes traded higher Tuesday as gold futures settled.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.77% saw a swing of more than 900 points in Monday’s session before ending sharply lower but off session lows. The S&P 500 SPX, +1.57% ended within a whisker of correction territory, widely defined as a drop of 10% from a recent peak.
In other metals trade, January platinum PLF9, -0.06% rose nearly 0.3% to $839 an ounce, while December palladium PAZ8, +0.75% was off almost 2.3% to settle at $1,055 an ounce. December copper HGZ8, +0.28% fell 2.8% to $2.664 a pound.
The SPDR Gold Trust exchange-traded fund GLD, -0.54% edged down by 0.5%.