Price gains for gold, silver as bulls regain some footing

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are moderately higher in early U.S. trading Friday. The metals bulls late this week have stabilized their markets after the early-week sell off. That begins to suggest this week’s lows are near-term market bottoms. A weaker U.S. dollar index to end the trading week is also working in favor of the metals market bulls. October gold futures were last up $7.30 at $1,757.10 and September Comex silver was last up $0.239 at $23.36 an ounce.

Global stock markets were mixed overnight, with European shares mostly up and Asian shares mostly down. The U.S. stock indexes are pointed to slightly higher openings when the New York day session begins and are at or near their record highs. Risk aversion remains low this summer. Good corporate earnings reports the past few weeks have kept trader and investor attitudes upbeat. However, storm clouds are on the horizon. Bloomberg reports fears are increasing that the spread of the delta variantmay lead toa repeat of last year’s shipping bottlenecks. The partial closure of the world’s third-busiest container port Thursday (Los Angeles) is putting pressure on already-strained supply chains ahead of the key shopping season. Bloomberg said the hub of Los Angeles is already bracing for another potential decline of traffic from China. The resulting delayscould add to the price of container shipping, which is already up more than 220% this year.

 

The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index lower. Nymex crude oil futures prices are a bit weaker and trading around $69.00 a barrel. Meantime, the yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note is presently fetching 1.342%.