Investing.com– Gold prices retreated from one-month highs on Monday, as traders locked in some profits after two weeks of gains, while copper prices fell amid uncertainty over a slew of major Chinese economic readings.
Metal prices saw strong gains over the past two weeks as the slumped to 15-month lows, tracking a string of weak U.S. inflation readings. The weak data also spurred increasing bets that the Federal Reserve was close to ending its rate hike cycle for the year.
But gains in gold were also somewhat limited by signs of resilience in the U.S. economy, which in turn weighed on safe haven demand for the yellow metal. Prices have largely stalled after reaching the $1,960 an ounce level last week.
fell 0.1% to $1,952.87 an ounce, while fell 0.4% to $1,957.05 an ounce by 20:29 ET (00:29 GMT). The two instruments surged 1.6% over the past week.
Copper stalls ahead of China Q2 GDP
Among industrial metals, copper prices retreated from recent gains as markets hunkered down ahead of more economic cues from China, the world’s largest copper importer.
fell 0.3% to $3.9203 a pound, after rallying nearly 4% in the past week.
China is set to release (GDP) data later in the day, with markets widely positioning for a slowdown in activity as a post-COVID economic recovery runs out of steam.
The country’s real estate sector- which is also a key source of copper demand- is still struggling with weak sales and laggard activity, while manufacturing has remained in contraction this year.
Still, trade data last week showed that Chinese copper imports remained robust in June, although this was also attributed in part to manufacturers building inventory on weak spot copper prices.
Chinese and data for June is also due later in the day.
Metal markets keep Fed meeting in sight
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to during a late-July meeting. But markets are now anticipating an extended pause in the Fed’s rate hike cycle, given the soft inflation readings from last week.
Still, with core U.S. inflation remaining high, markets remained unsure over whether the central bank will signal a pause. Fed officials have also offered mixed cues on future rate hikes.
The prospect of rising interest rates bodes poorly for metal markets, given that it increases the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets. But recent declines in the dollar have greatly benefited metal prices.
Read the full article here
