Gold rises for fifth straight week in anticipation of more rate cuts

[stack of shiny gold bars 3d illustration]
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Gold futures gained Friday to cap a fifth consecutive weekly gain, with market attention focused on the potential for further rate cuts after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points at mid-week.

"Markets are pricing in a 92% chance of a rate cut from the Fed in October, following Wednesday’s cut that sent mixed signals across markets," which is supportive for gold, ADM Investor Services said in a note, addling that the continued appetite from central banks to build up gold inventories also is helping to keep the metal's price elevated.

"The Fed's tone on future rate cuts was less dovish than expected after its September meeting concluded," but gold remains up this month and is expected to continue enjoy a boost from anticipated U.S. rate cuts and an uncertain geopolitical backdrop, as well as strong central bank buying and ETFs inflows, ANZ analysts wrote.

Of note, Switzerland's bullion exports to the U.S. plunged more than 99% in August to a mere 0.3 metric ton from July after a shock customs ruling briefly imposed tariffs on gold bars, according to Swiss customs data published Thursday.

The White House responded the following day that it would "clarify misinformation," but the tariff exemption for gold bars was only formalized in early September, meaning that gold shipments to the U.S. did not normalize until then.

Front-month Comex gold (XAUUSD:CUR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XAUUSD:CUR]) for September delivery closed +0.7% on Friday to $3,671.50/oz, while front-month Comex September silver (XAGUSD:CUR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XAGUSD:CUR]) settled +2% to $42.536/oz; for the week, gold gained 0.6% and silver added 0.3%.

ETFs: (NYSEARCA:GLD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GLD]), (NYSEARCA:GDX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GDX]), (GDXJ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GDXJ]), (NYSEARCA:IAU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/IAU]), (NYSEARCA:NUGT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NUGT]), (PHYS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PHYS]), (GLDM [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GLDM]), (AAAU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AAAU]), (SGOL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SGOL]), (RING [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/RING]), (BAR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BAR]), (OUNZ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/OUNZ]), (SLV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SLV]), (PSLV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PSLV]), (SIVR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SIVR]), (SIL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SIL]), (SILJ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SILJ])

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