Gold edges down

BENGALURU. — Gold edged down from two-month highs yesterday, as the dollar inched up from last week’s lows and investors kept a close watch on any developments on tension over the Korean peninsula.

Spot gold was down 0,1 percent $1 287,60 per ounce at 3.59am GMT, after marking its highest since June 7 at $1 291,86 per ounce in the previous session. US gold futures for December delivery were little changed at $1 293,80 per ounce.

“Maybe geopolitical tensions are easing so it’s natural for gold to come down a bit . . . But it’s very unpredictable because prices could rise to another high because of some change,” said Richard Xu, a fund manager at China’s biggest gold exchangetraded fund, HuaAn Gold.

“After the sharp sell-off in the dollar, over the weekend nothing happened so I guess the threat from the [Korean] peninsula is low, but we think gold fundamentals are strong,” Xu said.

The dollar yesterday edged higher against the yen, trading above last week’s near four-month low, with rising tension between the US and North Korea seen as the key to the near-term outlook.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was almost unchanged at 93,109.

President Donald Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying the US military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and world powers expressed alarm.

Geopolitical risks can boost demand for assets considered safe-haven investments, such as gold.

“Although more aggressive rhetoric between the US and North officials would temporarily boost gold prices, we see outright military action as unlikely and upward pressure on gold prices stemming from the confrontation as limited,” analysts at BMI research said in a note.

Meanwhile, a lower than expected rise in US consumer prices in July suggesting benign inflation could persuade a cautious Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates until December.

Spot gold faced a strong resistance at $1 291 per ounce, it could hover below this level or retrace to a support at $1 278, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. Among other precious metals, silver was up 0,3 percent at $17,12 per ounce, after hitting its highest since June 14 at $17,24 per ounce last week.