Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Gold Heading for Worst Weekly Performance Since March


Fri 14 Aug 2020 | 11:59 PM
Taarek Refaat

Gold fell on Friday, heading for its worst weekly performance since March, as appetite for the precious metal declined due to a jump in US Treasury bond yields and a US financing package to support the economy affected by the coronavirus.

In spot transactions, gold fell 0.5% to $1943.18 an ounce, and US gold futures settled down 1% to $1949.80.

The precious metal has lost 4.5% this week, after reaching an unprecedented peak of $2,072.50 on August 7 and making gains over the past nine weeks.

Gold, which is considered a safe haven, wasn't supported by weak economic data from everywhere, including US retail sales data.

The yield on the US benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds rose to their highest in seven weeks, while hopes of a new package of US aid linked to the coronavirus dipped after it began a congressional recess.

Higher yields increase the opportunity cost of acquiring assets that do not yield a return, such as gold, which has gained more than 28% since the start of the year.

As for other precious metals, silver fell 4.9% to $ 26.24 an ounce, and is heading towards ending a nine-week winning streak, down 7.2% since the start of the week.

Platinum fell 1.6% to $941.79, and palladium fell 2.4% to $1949.40.

Gold Price in Egyptian Market

Gold prices also fell on the Egyptian market by EGP 7 to record 982.82 for the 24-karat, EGP 860 for the 21-karat, and EGP 737.12 for the 18-karat.

As for the price of the 8g gold coin, it decreased by about one pound to hit EGP 6.880.