BULLION LATEST 18/10: Gold price rises on weaker dollar

The spot gold price was recently quoted at $1,287.15/1,287.55 per oz as of 04:12 BST, up $1.85 on the previous close. Trade has ranged from $1,285.45 to $1,288.9 so far.

• The US dollar index was recently at 93.48 at 04:12 BST, down 0.01% on yesterday’s close. The index made slight gains at the close on October 17, climbing to 93.498, which hit investor appetite and brought the price of gold below $1,300 per oz yesterday.
• But the one-week China Communist Party Congress starting from today has generated positive sentiment in the market.
• “Gold prices crawled higher in Asia reclaiming some of their overnight losses as traders awaited the start of the China Communist Party Congress,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA, said.
• “The sentiment intraday seems to be to buy on dips ahead of any surprise headlines from the party congress,” he added.
• Additionally, safe-haven buying driven by growing geopolitical risks remains strong, according to ANZ Research.

Silver and PGMs up

• In the other precious metals, the spot silver price was up $0.03 at $17.055/17.080 per oz. Platinum rose $2 to $931/936 per oz and palladium gained $7.5 to $984/989 per oz.
• On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for December delivery was recently at 276.6 yuan ($41.81) per gram and December silver was at 3,906 yuan per kilogram.

Currency moves and data releases

• The US dollar index was at 93.48 at 04:12 BST, down 0.01% on yesterday’s close.
• In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price rose 0.42% to $58.29 per barrel while the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price was up 0.14% to $52.12
• In data, a flurry of UK and EU figures came out. Notably, the UK September consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.0% as expected, while producer prices increased 0.2%. Eurozone CPI was up 1.5%, while the German  ZEW economic sentiment index was 26.7, down from forecasts and the previous reading.
• In US data, industrial production rose 0.3% month-on-month; foreign bond investment came at $11.5 billion, compared with -$0.5 billion in the previous month.
• Today’s calendar is pretty light with US housing starts, building permits figures coming out later.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping will give the opening speech at the 19th Communist Party Congress; ECB board members Draghi, Praet and Coeure are speaking in Frankfurt; US FOMC members Dudley and Kaplan will also deliver speeches later today.