September Gold News 2018

America is winning the trade war with China and the US stock markets are at record high levels, but can the USA keep this up? Can President Trump's economics provide for America in the long-term?

The Italian coalition government agreed a new national budget last night, after weeks of negotiations between the ruling parties. The deal sets a limit of 2.4% GDP for Italy’s deficit as the new national leadership seeks to meet their election promises by increasing public spending.

The US Federal Reserve has announced another interest rate rise, up by a quarter percent from 2% to 2.25%. The decision is the eighth rise in rates since 2015, the fifth since President Trump came to office in 2017, and the third under the leadership of Jerome Powell, Chair of the Fed.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has announced that the UK government’s Autumn Budget statement will now take place two days earlier – on Monday October 29th, putting it exactly five months before the UK leaves the European Union.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has tendered a raft of new projects this week as part of a larger inter-agency mission with the likes of NASA and Roscosmos in order to build a base orbiting the Moon.

The lunar orbit project, dubbed Deep Space Gateway, will act as an international research post allowing scientific projects and experiments to be conducted, including lunar mining.

Luis Caputo resigned his position as Governor of the Central Bank of Argentina this week after a mere three months in the role. The Argentine Peso fell by 7% against the US Dollar following the announcement, before recovering to a 4.65% loss as the news sunk in.

The Euro is making gains against the US Dollar this week following comments the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, made to senior officials in Brussels that inflation is set to rise in the Eurozone, while Deutsche Bank believe that the Eurozone will make significant gains thanks to the US/China trade war increasing the demand for European exports.

Oil prices hit a four-year high of $82.03 per barrel of Brent Crude after OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, chose not to boost production over the weekend as requested by US President Donald Trump. 

Chinese officials have accused the United States of trade bullyism, following the latest tariffs implemented on exports from China to America. The tariffs, which came into effect on Monday at 5am BST, are worth $200 billion, with $60 billion in retaliatory tariffs from China on their US imports.

Canadian firm Barrick Gold has agreed to buy London based Randgold Resources for approximately $18.3 billion, making the two combined the world’s largest gold company.

The latest report from the World Gold Council, released last Thursday, says that emerging economies are the future of investment gold demand as the global economy evolves to become multipolar, rather than heavily weighted on the activities of the west.

The Pound registered its largest one-day loss in over a year on Friday following a breakdown in Brexit talks on Thursday night in Salzburg. Prime Minister Theresa May met with fellow EU leaders in Austria to discuss the Irish border dilemma but her ‘Chequers Proposal’ was rejected, with supporting MPs and aides describing it as an “ambush”.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard and Poor (S&P) 500 both reached record market highs yesterday by the close of trading. The S&P, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq all gained between 0.8% and 1% during Thursday’s trading. For the S&P it has been a few weeks of record highs, but for the Dow Jones it’s the first record close since January.

The International Monetary Fund and Argentina’s President Macri have agreed new, stricter terms for a large bailout fund from the IMF, to combat Argentina’s sky-high inflation and subsequent interest rate.

The Chinese Premier (Prime Minister) Li Keqiang spoke out at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, telling journalists and investors that China would not devalue the Yuan in order to make exports from the country more attractive to the rest of the world.

Inflation in the UK rose to 2.7% in August, according to today's data from the Office for National Statistics. The initial forecast was for a drop from 2.5% to 2.4%, so today's data came as a surprise to investors when released by the ONS this morning.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has reportedly told the Prime Minister and the Cabinet that a no-deal Brexit next year could risk repeating the same level of financial hardship as the 2008-09 Financial Crash, with house prices and unemployment the main areas hit.

The price of silver hit a two and a half year low this week after market pressures and increased value for both the Pound and the Dollar weighed down on the price per ounce of the precious metal.

Workers at an Australian mine were amazed after discovering a rare gold vein containing two giant quartz rocks encrusted in gold, with an estimated value between $6 million and $10 million for the pair.

The price of gold inched up on Thursday, supported by physical buying and the dollar remaining under pressure. However, it's thought that a weaker yuan amid worries of looming U.S. tariffs on China halted any further gains for the metal.