Gold prices at the MCX on Monday were at Rs 71,230 per 10 grams, hitting an intraday low of Rs 71,147. In the international market, prices hovered around $2,330.99 per ounce. Meanwhile, silver hovered at Rs 82,347 per kg and hit an intraday low of Rs 82,230 on the MCX.
In the international market, the price hovered around $27.19 per ounce.
Kaynat Chainwala, Senior Manager-Commodity Research, Kotak Securities, said, “”COMEX Gold futures witnessed the first weekly decline in six and plunged more than 2% during the previous week, as investor’s gauged ease in geo-political tensions, mixed economic data from US and hawkish comments from Fed officials ahead of the FOMC policy meeting this week.”
The US economy grew much less than expected in Q1 but inflationary pressures remained elevated. Swap markets have pushed the first quarter point rate cut to November. The Federal Reserve is expected to deliver a hawkish tone given the recent uptick in inflation, said Chainwala.
Additionally, Deveya Gaglani, Research Analyst – Commodities at Axis Securities, said, “MCX gold drifted 1.8% lower, suffering its most significant weekly drop since Dec 4, 2022 (-2.6%) as the Gold rush diminished with reduced tension between Israel and Iran. However, the weak GDP data print from the USA released last week relieved gold bulls, enabling them to recover by 1.84% from the recent swing low, i.e. Rs 70,202.”
Manav Modi, Analyst, Commodity and Currency, MOFSL, said, “Sticky inflation has seen policymakers shift the debate from how many times they will cut rates to whether they should ease at all this year. This delay in rate cut has supported the Dollar Index and US Treasury yields.”
Gold prices have posted significant gains in the past few months, hence some steam off was also warranted. On data front, advance US GDP slowed sharply in the last quarter to a 1.6% annual pace in the face of high interest rates.
On the other hand, the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 0.3% last month, in line with forecasts, a development that is unlikely to change expectations that the Fed will hold off cutting interest rates until September.
Modi said, “China’s gold consumption in the first quarter climbed nearly 6% from a year earlier. Physical gold dealers in India charged premiums last week for the first time in nearly two months as a pullback in domestic prices lured buyers, while premiums in top consumer China slipped.”