Gold

Gold suffered under a stronger USD yesterday and couldn’t profit from rising equity markets. The Fed left rates unchanged as expected, but the rhetoric was a bit more hawkish, as they improved their growth outlook and acknowledged better data. Gold fell to a low of 1661.80 in late New York trading, when the FED released the results of Banks’ Stress Tests, saying US banks would be able to withstand a severe economic downturn and which was then followed by JP Morgan announcing a dividend hike together with a share buyback. On a positive side note, Global Gold ETF holdings continued to climb to new record highs in small steps, adding 1.2 tons to their stock. Gold is losing its support from save haven buyers and lacking physical demand from Asia, which still makes it vulnerable to lower notations. We would therefore look for a test of the 1650 USD level soon. The good equity market performance is also reflected in the Platinum/Gold ratio, which sees Platinum trade 20 USD higher than Gold.