Palladium surges the most since 1997 on SA lockdown

Bengaluru — Palladium prices rocketed on Wednesday, on track for their best daily gain since 1997, as a lockdown in major producer SA worsened supply woes, while gold inched up as markets eyed US stimulus.

Deficit-hit palladium rose as much as 24.8% earlier and was last up 19.3%, at $2,304.74/oz at 3pm local time.

“Palladium is soaring on heightened supply concerns … A’s lockdown) will make an already tight supply situation much worse,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at broker OANDA.

The autocatalyst metal rose 10% in the previous session on concerns of mine closures, though SA said on Wednesday it would continue to process platinum group metals during the lockdown.

The price rise “looks like short positions squeeze on the sentiment from South African mines closure. …  (A) 21-day mines closure would mean 2% global supply cut for 2020, while the magnitude of car sales drop for the year remains unclear,” Dmitry Glushakov, head of metals and mining research at VTB Capital.

Spot gold inched up 0.1% to $1,612 per ounce in volatile trade, after earlier hitting a two-week high. Prices surged as much as 5% on Tuesday.

US gold futures settled 1.5% lower at $1,634.90 an ounce, a day after posting their biggest one-day jump since 2009.

“It’s very volatile because we have a coronavirus-hit gold market now, we’ve got supplies from three of the biggest refiners offline in Switzerland and gold is not in the right place where it is needed. So it’s creating a lot of nervousness,” said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.

The benchmark spot gold prices traded below US gold futures in a sign the market is worried that air travel restrictions and refinery closures will hamper shipments of bullion to the US to meet contractual requirements.