![]() ![]() Mining output also recovered from the pandemic lows of 2020. Silver underperformed gold in the second half of the year as prices failed to reflect rising industrial demand. Turning to silver, the white metal finished down over 9% for 2021. The monetary metal is down about 3% for the year but will finish well off its lows. Gold showed signs of gathering upside momentum in the spring, but prices settled back down into a wide trading range for the rest of the year. Gold and silver lagged behind the stock market as well as broad commodity indexes. There is also the use of gold in industry for such things as electronics and medical devices.įor precious metals investors, 2021 will rank as a disappointing year – at least in terms of price performance. ![]() In 2017, 46% of demand for gold was for jewelry. The chief areas of gold demand are in gold jewelry. When gold demand outstrips gold supply, the price of gold goes up. There is only so much gold to be mined and gold mining is not cheap. Supply and demand, of course, also play a key role in the price of gold per gram or ounce. Gold prices are historically far more stable over the course of time than economies and other classes of investments. All of this is due to the “safe haven” status gold has traditionally had in the investment world. Related, the strength of major economies also has an inverse relationship to the price of gold - at least when an economy has a significant downturn. In other words, when the value the US dollar is strong, gold prices go down. Traditionally gold has an inverse relationship to the value of the dollar. Chief among these factors is the strength of the US dollar. The benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield up 4.5 basis points to 10.430%.There are many factors that contribute to the current price of gold. On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Top-40 index (.JTOPI) last traded about 0.4% stronger. Stage 6 outages mean many businesses and households are in the dark for 10 hours or more per day. South Africa's struggling utility Eskom said on Thursday that it would extend 'Stage 6' power cuts, its highest level on record, into the weekend as cold weather drives up demand and power station breakdowns constrain supply. Historically, there has been a correlation between power cuts and a weakening rand," Booysen added. "There is another risk factor that poses a threat to the South African rand - the return of level 6 load shedding. Rand Swiss portfolio manager Gary Booysen said the fact the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was likely to leave its repo rate (ZAREPO=ECI) unchanged at next week's monetary policy meeting could prompt investors to sell the rand in advance, given the Fed was expected to hike once more in a decision due on July 26. The rand broke below 18 to the dollar for the first time in three months on Thursday and as of Friday's open was up more than 5% for the week.īut by 1045 GMT, the rand had moved back above 18 to the dollar and was trading down about 0.7% from its Thursday closing level at 18.05. inflation, which has stoked speculation the Federal Reserve could pause its interest rate hikes after this month and driven the dollar to its weakest since April 2022. The risk-sensitive rand has been a big beneficiary of data this week showing cooling U.S. JOHANNESBURG, July 14 (Reuters) - The South African rand weakened on Friday, bringing this week's rally to a halt as prolonged power blackouts and expectations that the central bank will leave its main interest rate on hold next week weighed on the investor mood. ![]()
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