Gold stabilized near a record high yesterday, with the dollar regaining some luster as a hedging tool in the face of a new escalation of US-Chinese tensions, but concerns about the exacerbation of the pandemic kept gold on its longest weekly gain in about 10 years.
The spot price of gold recorded an unprecedented high of 2072.5 dollars an ounce in early trade, while it fell to 2069.3 dollars later. The metal rose 4.4% over the past week, in what will be its ninth weekly gains in a row. And US gold futures advanced 0.1% to $ 2,072 an ounce.
ING analyst Warren Patterson said: "It is difficult not to be optimistic (about gold), while the pace of the rise may slow, there is undoubtedly room for further upside in the near term, and in the remainder of the year." .
And contributed to limiting the progress of gold, the rise of the dollar by 0.3% against its rivals, as the appetite for risk was negatively affected by President Donald Trump's decision to ban US transactions on two popular Chinese applications. In other precious metals, platinum fell 2.5% to $ 972.74 an ounce, and palladium fell 0.6% to $ 2208.68.
In addition, the World Gold Council said that index funds increased their gold holdings for the eighth consecutive month in July, by 166 tons, valued at $ 10 billion, which contributed to the rise in prices to record levels.
Investors buy gold in huge volumes in search of an asset that will preserve its value amid the market turmoil caused by the Corona virus, which raised the price of the metal 35% this year.
Index funds, which hoard gold on behalf of investors, collected 899 tons of the metal between January and July, nearly two-fifths of the total global supply over that period, according to the Gold Council.
Index fund holdings of gold increase 166 tons in July.