Gold prices dipped to a near one-week low on Tuesday as investors moved towards riskier assets, encouraged by signs that coronavirus-related restrictions were easing.
Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,707.60 per ounce by 2:39 p.m. EDT, after falling as much as 1.4% earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures dipped 0.1% to $1,721.80.
“With stocks higher a lot of the flight-to-safety money that went into gold or is in gold, some of it is coming out and going into the equity market right now,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
From Italy to New Zealand, governments announced the easing of restrictions. More parts of the United States looked set to restart business, though Britain said it is too dangerous to relax a stringent lockdown for fear of a second outbreak.
Lockdowns in many countries to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus have hammered the economy as businesses came to halt, leaving many unemployed.
In the U.S. a record 26.5 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March and are likely to push the unemployment rate to 16% or higher in the next jobs report.
World stocks rose to their highest in almost six weeks as plans to ease lockdowns offset more chaos in oil markets.
“Any dips in gold should be bought up pretty quickly … Countries are bailing out entire industries. Interest rate are at near nothing. That’s not going away anytime soon,” Haberkorn said.
Central banks around the world have rolled out stimulus measures to combat financial impact from the virus, which has infected about 3.03 million people globally and killed 210,263.
Gold tends to benefit from widespread stimulus measures from central banks and governments because it is widely viewed as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.
“Weak physical demand is currently off-setting all the positive hype about gold and with that there is a risk of a period of consolidation and perhaps even lower prices,” Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.
“Overall, however, we believe that the reasons that have brought gold to these levels will not go away when lockdowns are eased.”
Investors will now look for any forward guidance from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which meets on Wednesday. The European Central Bank meets on Thursday.
Elsewhere, palladium fell 1.4% to $1,849 per ounce and platinum gained 1.4% to $771. Silver dropped 0.1% to $15.07.
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020.