After two weeks of volatility, has the mini banking crisis been averted? Markets seem to think so based on trading so far this week. After passing $2,000 per ounce several times in the past fortnight, gold has now settled at around $1,950 per ounce as traders take in the current banking conditions.
Following another chaotic weekend, markets seem somewhat calmer today following the dramatic buyout of Credit Suisse by rival bank UBS.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week has seen share prices slashed for many regional and mainstream banks around the world. While an outright banking crisis has so far been averted markets remain extremely tense.
Banks around the world have seen a ‘brutal’ sell-off in the past 24 hours, triggered by a share sale by Silicon Valley Bank that has caused a domino effect for the banking sector globally that has raised fears of a new potential banking crisis.
Having reached a new UK record last week, the gold price has pulled back this week following a strong job report in the US. Markets are now trying to work out the direction the Federal Reserve will take on interest rates at their next meeting.
Gold has climbed to a 10-month high this morning of $1,909.96, following a further slow down to the rate of inflation in the US. Annual CPI figures came in at 6.5% for December following 7.1% inflation in November.
The People’s Bank of China have recently announced two large purchases of gold to add to the country’s already significant holding for their reserves.
Interest rates continue to rise following another round of hikes from key central banks around the world, with the Fed, BoE, and ECB all increasing rates by 0.5 percentage points.
Cryptocurrencies have suffered further heavy selling this week following the near-collapse and bailout of FTX, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges.
Demand for gold remains high in 2022, with central bank buying and bullion demand in particular boosting the precious metal back to pre-Covid levels.
Gold and silver have enjoyed a very strong week so far, pushing the metals up to a three-week and three-month high respectively in USD. Following a difficult summer, all precious metals saw a quick rebound in price this week.
Central banks around the world continue to raise interest rates to multi-year highs as inflation runs rampant and the dollar exerts its dominance against other currencies.
The United States Treasury has blocked access for the Russian government to use US banks for bond payments, forcing Russia to either pay in dollars from its own reserves or to default.
Defaulting would anger investors who have previously dealt with Russia, and would further damage their already-deteriorating reputation globally.
