Gold Smashes $1,350, Benefiting More Than Oil From Mideast Attacks

New York (June 15)  Attacks on crude tankers in the Middle East may not be doing too much for oil bulls, but those long gold are seeing gains as heightened geopolitical risks push the yellow metal to 14-month highs.

Bullion and futures of gold both blew past the $1,350 psychological resistance on Friday, setting up their next critical test at $1,400. Global tensions from Thursday's attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman added to the investor fervor in gold amid expectations of a Fed rate cut.

Spot gold, reflective of trades in bullion, traded at $1,346.97 per ounce by 1:00 PM ET (17:00 GMT), up $4.94, or 0.4%, on the day. It earlier hit $1,358.13, its highest level since April 2018.

Gold futures for August delivery, traded on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, was up $3.65, or 0.3%, at $1,347.35 per ounce. The session high was $1,361.95.

Gold is a hedge for investors in times of economic and political troubles.

Investors have piled into the yellow metal over the past two weeks on worries that the worsening U.S.-China trade war may tip the world into a recession.

That has, in turn, led to hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to preserve U.S. economic growth, which has been in a record expansion streak of nearly a decade.

"Tariff tiffs, global economic woes and political headlines also all coming together for investors in gold," said George Gero, precious metals analyst at RBC Wealth Management.

"The Fed may be forced to look deeper into cutting rates," Gero said.

In other precious metals trading, the spot price of palladium climbed 1.4% to $1,469.25 per ounce.

The autocatalyst metal has risen about 8% so far this week, its biggest gain since the week ended April 13, 2018.

Investing.com