Gold looking at biggest weekly gain in nine years due to Covid-19

Bengaluru — Gold prices rose more than 1% on Friday and were on course for their biggest weekly gain since October 2011 as the global spread of the coronavirus dimmed growth prospects and sent investors scurrying for safe-haven assets.

Spot gold was up 0.7% at $1,681.67 an ounce at 10.58am GMT, having risen as high as $1,689.65. Prices are up about 6% so far this week. US gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,682.80.

“The usual out of risky assets into safe havens” flow is fueling gold’s rise, driven by concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus, said Peter Fertig, an analyst at Quantitative Commodity Research.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 slid in tandem with global equities on concerns that the economic impact of the virus will be more severe than anticipated, while US 10-year treasury yields slumped to new record lows.

“The market has no understanding of what’s going on. Investors are buying bonds, as well as gold, as insurance from the deteriorating economic outlook,” said SP Angel analyst Sergey Raevskiy.

Globally, there have been more than 98,000 cases and more than 3,300 deaths from the coronavirus. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the outbreak would hold 2020 global output gains to their slowest pace since the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

The epidemic poses “evolving risks” to the US economy and central bank officials are monitoring developments closely, New York Federal Reserve president John Williams said on Thursday.

“Gold is looking to be one of the most attractive assets to own now as short-term interest rates fall to near zero and most equity earnings are also expected to fall,” Phillip Futures analysts said in a note. “However, a drastic and prolonged drop in equity prices may not be good for gold as traders cash in from gold to pay off margin calls in equity.”

The US Federal Reserve made an emergency 50 basis point interest-rate cut on Tuesday. Lower interest rates reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion.

In other metals, palladium fell 3.1% to $2,454.22 an ounce. The automotive catalyst metal had hit an all-time high of $2,875.50 in late February. Silver was down 0.2% to $17.38 an ounce, while platinum was unchanged at $864.

Reuters