(RTTNews) – Partially offsetting the losses from the two previous sessions, gold prices have inched higher on Wednesday as gold received some support from its safe haven demand, while investors assessed the impact of a surge in oil prices and the consequent inflationary pressures.
Front Month Comex Gold for October delivery has moved higher by $22.80 (or 0.52%) to $4,428.00 per troy ounce.
Front Month Comex Silver for October delivery has surged by $1.816 (or 2.73%) to $68.285 per troy ounce.
The Middle East conflict is showing no sign of easing as both the U.S. and Iran continue to launch fierce attacks on each other’s targets.
On Saturday, after two of its navy warships were targeted by Iran with ballistic missiles, U.S. forces claimed striking three Iranian oil tankers. In response, Iran claimed to have hit three U.S. vessels.
Yesterday, United States Central Command claimed destroying five Iranian crude oil carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps targeted a U.S. Navy warship.
The IRGC announced targeting two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers as well as attacking a military base in Jordan that hosts U.S. troops. CENTCOM denied the claim by the IRGC that it had struck two U.S. Navy destroyers.
The IRGC announced widening the “restricted zone” outside the Strait of Hormuz, extending from Chabahar into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Sepah News, the IRGC’s official news outlet, reported that the Iranian Navy captured an unmanned underwater vehicle, Dive-LD. The U.S. military just stated that one of its underwater drones malfunctioned.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that every time Iran attempts to hit U.S. Naval warships, it will lose its tankers.
Iran counter-warned that the U.S. will be responsible for any consequences on U.S. vessels in the region.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported that a tanker was hit by a projectile, 28 nautical miles southeast of Al Faw in Iraq.
After the Memorandum of Understanding signed in June between both the nations expired on August 17, no new formal negotiations have been scheduled. Mediatory efforts by Qatar are yet to yield any productive result.
On Sunday, in an interview with ABC News, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated that the U.S. may not be able to strike a nuclear deal with Iran, diminishing the expectations of U.S.-Iran re-negotiations.
Today, citing Kpler’s data, Reuters reported that only six commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. A day earlier, it was nine, still below the 10-day average of about 12 per day.
Adding to its economic pressure on Iran, the U.S. imposed 36 new sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector to truncate Iran’s financial, trade, and military supply networks.
On the monetary front, after last Friday’s jobs data signaled resilience in the U.S. jobs market, expectations of a rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve in September have increased.
On the economic front, the purchase index released by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America decreased to 157.50 in September from 157.80 of the previous week.
Data released by Automatic Data Processing revealed an addition of 12,500 jobs per week over the four weeks ending August 22.
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, investors are currently betting on a 62.20% chance of a 25-basis-point interest rate-hike at the upcoming meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve on September 15-16, while the odds on rates being held at the current level stand at 37.80%.
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