Gold futures settled with a loss on Friday but still saw the biggest weekly rise in more than 11 years in a rebound fuelled in part by a weaker US dollar and concerns about disruptions in the physical market for the precious metal.
The dollar weakened as it appeared likely the $US2 trillion stimulus/support package would be passed and signed off by President Trump, which it was late Friday.
US bond yields fell, with the yield on 10year treasuries easing 13 points to 0.679% on Friday. the Aussie dollar ended well over 61 US cents at 61.68, the highest the currency has been since early March.
But the closure of three big gold refineries in Switzerland and the Royal Canadian mint has taken supply out of the market and forced the company behind Comex to introduce a new contract with common delivery options to that of the London gold contract.
London uses 400 troy ounce bars to settle its contract, Comex, 100 troy ounce bars. The new contract on Comex will allow gold to be settled in 100, 400 troy ounce bars and 1 Kg bars. That will start at the expiration of the April contract next week and end the supply/ settlement mismatch.
Comex gold for April delivery fell $US26.20, or 1.6%, to settle at $US1,625 an ounce on Friday.
For the week, prices for the most-active contract rose 9.5%, which was the biggest weekly rise since September 2008, according to FactSet.
May silver dropped 14.2 cents, or 1.%, to $US14.534 an ounce, for a weekly rise of more than 17% — the largest weekly rise since April 1987.
Comex May copper shed 0.3% to $US2.172 a pound, with prices ending little changed for the week.
April platinum added 0.4% to $US740.30 an ounce, for a weekly rise of nearly 19%. June palladium settled at $US2,196.80 an ounce, down 1.3% but still a weekly jump of more than 42%.
Mine shutdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 in South Africa and Russia have raised expectations for tighter supplies of the platinum group metals even though car sales and production are tumbling (a major end-use for the metals). Moody’s reckons global car sales will fall 14% this year.
