Gold rose 1% on Friday to its highest in seven years as the spread of the coronavirus intensified concerns about its impact on economic activity and global growth, increasing the metal’s safe-haven appeal.
Spot gold rose 0.9% to $1,633.46 per ounce as of 1027 GMT, after hitting its highest since Feb.14, 2013 at $1,635.98 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures jumped 1% to $1,636.40. Gold prices have risen 3% so far this week and are set to record their biggest weekly percentage gain since early August.
South Korea has reported 52 new cases, taking the national total to 156, while Japan reported the first fatalities from a cruise ship which accounted for the biggest cluster of infections outside China. Meanwhile, China reported an uptick in new cases of coronavirus, boosted by more than 200 people testing positive for the disease in two prisons outside of Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak.
“Markets are once again anxious because the coronavirus outbreak is possibly spreading outside China. There is huge amount of safe-haven demand as economic slowdown in China, Japan and Germany is expected to persist in the first half of the year,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at broker OANDA.
“We’ve got a trend going,” said John Weyer, co-director of commercial hedging with Walsh Trading. “I don’t see anything that’s going to stop it.”
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Article sources: www.dailysabah.com, www.cnbc.com, investing.com
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