Euro gold prices headed for their lowest weekly close since February at €1670.

 

Silver held firmer but also slipped, erasing almost all this week's prior 6.9% jump to trade back at $19.07 per ounce.

 

Bond prices also fell yet again, driving 10-year borrowing costs for the US, UK and most Eurozone governments more than 2 percentage points higher from this time in 2021.

 

European equities dropped within 3% of mid-June's 15-month low on the EuroStoxx 600 index, while so-called crypto currencies Bitcoin and Ether showed 8.8% and 16.5% weekly losses against the Dollar.

 

Crude oil rallied as German authorities seized control of 3 refineries owned by Russia's Rosneft ahead of next year's embargo on energy imports from the Ukraine invader, but European natural gas prices sank as much as 10% as commodity prices fell again on the S&P GSCI basket after sinking 3.2% on Thursday.

 

"Data [yesterday] showed demand for workers in the US remains strong," says Daniel Hynes at Australasian bank ANZ, pointing to lower-than-expected jobless benefit claims.

 

"Retail sales were also reasonable...likely to keep the Fed on the tightening cycle for the foreseeable future."

 

Added together, that means "Rising geopolitical and economic risks are doing little to entice safe haven buying" in gold bullion and related products, Hynes says, "with the US Dollar remaining the asset of choice."

 

No.2 gold ETF the IAU product was also left almost unchanged in size by yesterday's break in gold prices below $1680, but with trading volume only 15% above its recent average.

 

Trading in derivatives exchange the CME's Comex gold contracts meantime jumped 58% from Wednesday's level, reaching the heaviest volume in 2 months.

 

CME trading volumes in silver, platinum and palladium fell in contrast.

 

With global gold prices 2.1% lower in Dollar terms this morning, volumes in Shanghai's most active gold contract jumped almost 45% on Friday from last month's average, hitting more than 20 tonnes.

 

But that only took Au(T+D) volume a little above July's daily average, and today's activity lagged the 2021 average by 15%.

 

Shanghai premiums over London quotes still rose however, with gold bullion landed in China – the precious metal's No.1 consumer market – offering importers an incentive of $38 per ounce, a fresh 6-year high, even as the domestic Yuan price of gold fell to an 8-session low and the Chinese currency weakened to its lowest US Dollar exchange rate since 2020.

 

With zero-Covid lockdowns continuing to hit consumer spending in China, "Grass roots buying is relatively thin at the moment," said international brokerage StoneX's Rhona O'Connell last month, "so there may be some institutional interest involved" in boosting China's reported gold bullion imports through Hong Kong to a 9-month high in July.