Commodity: Gold Prices Increase as Dollar Moderates on Trump’s Comments

On Tuesday, gold prices increased as the dollar moderates following the comments of President Donald Trump saying he is not thrilled with the decision of the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates.

Based on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the December delivery of Gold futures made 0.6% gains to  $1,201.9 per troy ounce.

Last week, the gold futures ended at 2.86% low which was the largest decline in weeks. Moreover, gold prices declined to around 10% so far and it was being pressured further low by the strengthening dollar and increasing interest rates.

The US Dollar Index, meanwhile, went down to 0.3% to 95.39.

“I should be given some help by the Fed,” Trump said. He added that he believed the Federal Reserve should do “what’s good for the country.” The Fed is due for another meet in considering rates. Markets broadly set expectations on Fed’s hike of interest rates in September and later this year. As of this time, the central bank has already increased rates five times since Trump became the President.

According to Mizuho Securities’ Masafumi Yamamoto, Fed officials don’t seem affected by Trump’s comments.

“As long as the U.S. economy is okay…then I think there is no reason to stop the rate hikes from the Fed’s point of view,” he said.

There were reports that China and the United States will facilitate talks this week. This served as a headwind for the greenback with the expectation of analysts that this could pave a way toward an easing in the trade dispute.

The recent Turkish lira crisis and worsening trade tensions had pushed the dollar to reach to 96.984 which was the highest record since June of last year.

Commodity: Oil prices mixed on US imposition of sanctions to Iran

On Tuesday, Oil prices were mixed as the crude supply is likely to decline after the US imposes economic sanctions against Iran in November.

The October delivery of Brent Oil Futures decreased by 0.07% to $72.16 per barrel while there was anincrease of 0.09% to $65.48 a barrel in the October delivery of the Crude Oil WTI Futures.

Meanwhile, traders are expecting that there would be a decline of crude supply in November once the US sanctions against Iran had surfaced. On Monday, Washington made an offer of 11 million of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve for delivery from Oct. 1 to Nov. 31. This is to avoid a huge jump in oil price following the impact of the sanctions.