FS: Precious metals prices lower, platinum holds near high
Precious metals drifted lower in early European trading on Thursday, with the ranges for all but platinum narrowing of late.
Spot platinum gave back some of the previous session’s gains to reach $1,728/1,738 per ounce, down $6. It had risen to a 17-month high of $1,742 overnight.
“Although we are bullish for the PGMs on supply concerns over the medium term, we feel they may need to consolidate for a while in the short term,” FastMarkets analyst William Adams said.
“Finding a specific reason for the sudden $16 jump [in platinum] proved to be a struggle, as there were no particular headlines or economic data on which to lay blame,” UBS analyst Joni Teves said. “We think the most plausible explanation is simply that the move was a continuation of the positive momentum in both PGMs of late.”
The metal continues to trade at a premium to gold, which was last at $1,675.35/1,676.15 per ounce on the spot market, down a fractional $3.05. So far today, it has been caught in a range of just $6.40.
Silver was last at $31.73/31.78 per ounce, down 12 cents, and palladium was last at $760/765, down $2. It had peaked at $773 per ounce in the previous session.
“Platinum is playing catch-up with palladium, as the latter has been on a strong uptrend since printing a low of $666.40 in early January,” Teves added. “In percentage terms, palladium has rallied nearly 16 percent while platinum lags slightly at 12.7 percent.”
In other currencies, platinum set its highest price in the South African rand since before the financial crash in 2008, peaking at 15,497.75 rand per ounce. Gold’s run in the yen also continues, soaring to 157,474 yen per ounce earlier.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange also announced that its most active gold contract for delivery in December reached its highest at 5,081 yen per gram.
In currencies, the euro recouped some of its losses, climbing to 1.3564 against the dollar this morning, up around 0.4 cents ahead of the central bank policy meetings later.
The Bank of England is expected to maintain interest rates at historic lows as is the European Central Bank – its rate is also at a record low of 0.75 percent. Markets will focus on any comments by the bank’s president, Mario Draghi, about the euro’s recent strength as well as the bank’s view on eurozone economic prospects.
As well today, the US data newsflow resumes after yesterday when no data was issued – this afternoon December US non-farm productivity and unit labour costs and weekly US unemployment claims will be released.
In other markets, equities are also subdued, with the Nikkei giving back some of the gains made in the previous session. It was last down about one percent at 11,357. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is down a third of a percent. European indices are a touch higher, with the FTSE at 6,296 and the Dax at 7,589.
In other commodities, Brent crude oil is still teetering near its highs achieved following a three-week rally. It was last at $117.34 per barrel. On the LME, three-month copper is again down, losing $10 to $8,235 per tonne.
In data released so far, UK manufacturing and industrial production both beat forecasts, while the French trade balance for December at -5.3 billion euros undershot the expected -4.2 billion euros.
