(Kitco News) – After a positive close at the end of last week, gold and silver start this week marginally lower. The yellow metal is now trading firmly above the $1800/oz level at $1813/oz. In the rest of the commodities complex, spot WTI has moved nearly half a percent in the red but copper has jumped 0.57% to trade at $4.34/lb.
In terms of risk sentiment in the Asia Pac area, the Nikkei 225 (0.54%) and ASX (0.22%) traded well but the Shanghai Composite traded just under flat. Futures in Europe are pointing towards a marginally positive open.
In the FX market, NZD and AUD struggled overnight but the rest of the majors were pretty static. In the crypto space, bitcoin is still struggling to break the elusive $50k market and is currently trading 2% lower at $47,800.
Looking at some of the major news stories,
ECB’s Villeroy says there s no risk of higher inflation at this stage. He added Financing conditions have improved since June and interest rates will remain favourable.
As the German regional CPI’s kick off today, first up North-Rhine Westphalia (August) CPI’s reading reached +4.2% vs +4.1% y/y prior.
New Zealand PM Ardern says Auckland lockdown extended, remain on Level 4 alert for another 2 weeks.
There has been a new record high daily (1290) COVID-19 cases for Sydney / NSW (Australia’s largest population city and state).
Japanese Retail sales for July +2.4% y/y (expected 2.1%)
In the U.S. Gulf, (Hurricane Ida) more than 95% Gulf crude oil, 94% natural gas offline.
There have been some media reports stating the OPEC+ group could reconsider plans to add more oil barrels this week.
Looking ahead to the rest of the session highlights include German CPI, EZ consumer confidence, U.S. pending home sales and comments from ECB’s Schnabel. The U.K. is off for a bank holiday today.