Investing.com -- Gold edged above $1,500 an ounce again on Friday, as the reality of ever-more negative interest rates in Europe outweighed the general return of risk appetite in stock and commodity markets.
By 10:25 AM ET (1425 GMT), Gold Futures for delivery on the Comex exchange were at $1,505.75 a troy ounce, down 0.1% from late Thursday but up from an intra-day low of $1,503.20.
Spot gold was trading at $1,498.04, down less than 0.1%.
Stronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment data for August earlier stopped any more substantial recovery, denting hopes for a 50 basis-point cut in U.S. interest rates from the Federal Reserve next week. According to Investing.com’s Fed rate monitor tool, though, the market still sees an 87.7% chance of a quarter-point cut.
Growing confidence in a rapprochement between the U.S. and China on trade have also depressed appetite for have assets. The Chinese news agency Xinhua said earlier Friday that Beijing would exempt U.S, pork and soybeans from the latest increase in import tariffs that came into effect at the start of the month.
“If the confluence of diminishing risks continues, and central banks continue to walk back the markets dovish rate cut expectations, gold may ease further,” said Stephen Innes, Asia-Pacific analyst with AxiTrader.
Innes noted that long positions on the Comex remain very high (they hit an all-time high last week, according to the World Gold Council), leaving the market vulnerable to further profit-taking.
Among other haven assets, silver futures fell 1.7% to $17.86 an ounce, their lowest in over two weeks, while platinum futures were up 0.2% at $954.14 an ounce, having lost most of their intraday gains after the Michigan consumer sentiment numbers.
Copper futures, by contrast, rose 2.1% to a six-week high of $2.695 a pound.