Gold checked by stronger US dollar, waits for US election

The spot gold price stayed checked by a stronger US dollar during Asian trading hours on Tuesday November 8 while investors awaited the US presidential election later today.

The spot gold price was recently quoted at $1,282.90/1,283.35 per oz, up just $0.70 on the previous close. Trade has ranged from $1,280.65 to $1,284.15 so far.

Later today, Americans will go to the polls to elect the 45th US President. Polling stations will close between 19:00 EST and 20:00 EST, which is by Wednesday afternoon Singapore time.

Risky assets had broadly rallied while safe haven assets gave up earlier gains on Monday in response to the FBI clearing Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing in her use of a private email server. This may improve the chances of a Clinton-win in the election, market watchers said. 

Election headlines are still dictating flows and the recent stability in the Clinton camp brought about via the FBI headlines has calmed the nerves of some participants for now, MKS Group said on Tuesday morning.

“Gold held the 200-DMA overnight and we expect this to continue to base the metal until election results start to filter through around 24 hours from now,” the broker added.

The US dollar recovered, rising to a one-week high of 97.87 on Monday – it was recently at 97.80 on Tuesday, up 0.11% from its previous close.

In US data released Monday, labour market conditions for October came in at 0.7, improving over the previous figure of -2.2. The JOLTS jobs openings for September is due later on Tuesday.

In other data, China’s yuan-denominated trade balance for October came in at 325 billion yuan ($48 billion), below forecast of 366 billion yuan but above September’s reading of 278 billion yuan. The US dollar-denominated trade balance was at $49.1 billion, below expectations of $51.9 billion but above September’s reading of $42 billion.

In October, China’s total exports fell 7.3% and imports slipped 1.4%, both on a year-on-year basis in US dollar-denominated terms. While they improve from September’s readings of -10% and 1.9% respectively, the fact that they remain negative continues to raise concerns over slow global demand and the strength of China’s economic recovery.

In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price fell 0.28% to $46.17 per barrel, and the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price decreased 0.04% to $44.81 so far on Tuesday.

In equities, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.24% to 3,140.88 recently on Tuesday.

In the other precious metals, the spot silver price fell $0.01 to $18.21/18.23 per oz. Platinum at $999/1,005 per oz was up $4 while palladium was unchanged at $645/653 per oz.

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