Gold price continues to rise to uncharted region on Monday. Currently trading at 1109.3, the benchmark contract is mainly buoyed by weakness in the dollar. Rajat Nag, managing director of Asian Development Bank forecast that the dollar may lose its status as the dominant reserve currency in 20-30 years. ‘India’s move to buy gold is a reflection that the Reserve Bank of India is thinking of diversifying its reserves…Over time, central banks should start to look at a mix of euro, yen, RMB and possibly the Indian rupee’.
Currently trading at 78.7, WTI crude oil advances further in European morning as hurricane Ida strengthened and caused shutdowns of oil facilities in the gulf region. Decline in USD against major currencies also increased appeal for commodity buying. Others in the energy complex also rally with RBOB gasoline rebounding to 1.95 after plunging to 3-week low at 1.903 while heating oil soared to 2.03 after breaking below 2 dollar last Friday.
According to National Hurricane Centre, Ida’s centre was lovated about 340 miles east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and is moving towards north-northwest. It’s classified as a category 2 storm.
Large oil companies have made precautionary actions and suspended production at some of its sites. Chevron said it had shut some of its Gulf output and BP said that is has started ‘some precautionary curtailment of production’. Exxon Mobil said the company is monitoring the weather condition though its operations remained normal for the moment.
Stock markets recovered after tumbles after weak US employment Friday. In Asia, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed +1%. In Europe, stocks soar as G-20 leaders decided to keep supporting the economy until the recovery proves to be self-sustained. Benchmark indices in the UK and the Eurozone surge more than 1% in morning session. Also supporting stocks was the stronger-than-expected sentiment index released in the 16-nation Eurozone. The Sentix Investor Confidence rose to +7 in November from -12.6 a month ago. The market had anticipated only modest improvement to -12. Germany’s industrial production also jumped +2.7% mom in September following a +1.8% increase in the prior month.