Investing.com – Gold prices inched up on Thursday morning in Asia, hovering around a three-month high earlier in the week. The prices rose as Asian equity markets declined following a sell-off on Wall Street.
for December delivery edged up 0.71% to $1,239.8 per troy ounce at 12:07 AM ET (04:07 GMT) on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, not far from a three-month high of $1,242.8 reported on Tuesday. The also gained 0.34% to 96.03.
The U.S. stock markets closed with a slump Wednesday evening, with the dropping 3.09% and Nasdaq falling 4.43%. The nosedive prompted Asian markets to tumble Thursday morning, as China’s slipped 1.63% and Shenzhen Component dove down 1.99%. Hong Kong’s slipped 1.86%. Japan’s plummeted 2.96%, while South Korea’s lost 2.21%.
The recent sell-off is likely to drive up the demand for safe haven assets, namely the precious yellow metals.
Demand is also impacted by geopolitical tensions, led by Saudi Arabia’s role in the murder of a journalist and Italy’s budget issue.
The de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, broke his silence Wednesday during an investment conference in Riyadh, condemning the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi as a “heinous crime.” The Saudi critic was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2, sparking an international outcry over the kingdom’s role in the incident.
“The crime was really painful to [the] Saudis, and I believe it is painful to every human in the world. It is a heinous crime that cannot be justified,” he said.
Those comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed details on the Saudi timeline in the murder of Khashoggi on Sunday.
Separately, after the European Commission rejected Italy’s budget on Tuesday and asked its member state to revise it, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday. The meeting is widely seen as a move towards Italy’s collision with the EU.
“The approach of this Italian government is actually not that different to previous ones on paper. The difference is that whereas previous governments went with mainstream international consensus, this Italian government is far more willing to challenge Nato and the EU,” Nathalie Tocci, director of the Institute of International Affairs, told the Financial Times.
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Source: Investing.com
