At $1,436.68 an ounce on Wednesday, the metal hasn’t been this cheap since August 2019.
The price of gold, like that of many commodities, declined over the week as markets feared a more active than expected US Federal Reserve (Fed) once morest lingering inflation.
After several indicators showing the strength of the US economy, Thursday’s rebound in the PPI index, which measures inflation on the producer side, further reinforced the idea that the Fed was going to have to raise its tone.
The rise in gold in 2023 “was 6%”, but has since “evaporated once morest a dollar boosted by the Fed”, summarizes Han Tan, analyst at Exinity.
Reference currency of the gold market, the dollar weighs on the purchasing power of investors using other currencies when it becomes more expensive.
An ounce of gold cost 1,834.07 dollars around 3:30 p.m. GMT (4:30 p.m. in Paris), once morest 1,865.57 dollars seven days earlier at the end of trading.
Among other precious metals, palladium hit particularly low levels.
At $1,436.68 an ounce on Wednesday, the metal hasn’t been this cheap since August 2019.
Palladium is a precious metal but also used by the automotive industry to design catalytic converters.
And with a slowing global economy looming as well as the rise of electric vehicles, “demand from automakers is likely to remain constrained,” analysts at Bank of America say.
An ounce of palladium traded for 1,496.79 dollars once morest 1,546.67 dollars seven days earlier at the end of the session.
The nickel is running out of steam
Nickel prices fell this week on the London Metal Exchange (LME), dragged down by oversupply predictions for 2023, to hit their lowest since November on Friday.
Russian giant Nornickel, the main producer in Russia, has forecast a supply surplus of 120,000 tons in the global nickel market this year, said Thu Lan Nguyen, an analyst at Commerzbank.
If this assessment is a little less favorable than that of the International Nickel Study Group, which in the autumn forecast a surplus of 177,000 tonnes on the market, supply should remain higher than demand, pulling metal prices down. .
During the presentation of its annual results, Nornickel also indicated that production might decrease “due to maintenance work”, continues Thu Lan Nguyen.
In this context, “production in Indonesia, the world’s leading nickel mining producer, should be the subject of particular attention”, she explains, “the level of excess supply” then having to determined by expected production increases in that country.
On the LME, a ton of nickel for delivery in three months traded at 25,850 dollars on Friday following falling to its lowest since November at 25,560 dollars, once morest 27,794 dollars the previous Friday at the close.
Cocoa in great shape
Cocoa prices soared over the week, hitting a more than six-year high in London, boosted by supply concerns in some key producing countries.
“Hot and dry” weather conditions in Ivory Coast, by far the largest cocoa producer, might weigh on production, says Price Group analyst Jack Scoville.
Ghana has meanwhile reported a disease in its cocoa crops, “which is harming the production potential in this country”, continues the analyst.
Together, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire produce regarding two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.
The supply is not enough to meet global demand, especially since producers are still facing a lack of fertilizers, pesticides and fertilizers since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia being a major exporting country of these products. .
The ton of cocoa in London peaked on Friday at 2,155 pounds sterling, a price not seen since November 2016. Also listed in New York, cocoa touched the same day 2,798 dollars per ton, its highest since February 2022.
At 3:30 p.m. GMT, it was worth 2,135 pounds sterling in London, once morest 2,009 pounds sterling a week earlier at the end of the session and 2,777 dollars in New York, once morest 2,606 dollars a week earlier.
