Gold prices broke the barrier of $2070 per ounce at the end of last week’s trading

Gold prices rose to record levels, breaking the $2,070 per ounce barrier at the end of last week’s trading, after the release of weaker-than-expected US economic data and the rise in military tensions in the Middle East. The head of strategic planning at the Kuwaiti Dar Al-Sabaek Company, Adel Al-Fadhli, said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Sunday that the yellow metal was able to achieve gains for the third week in a row in conjunction with weak American economic data. Al-Fadhli added that factory activity in the United States of America has been witnessing a continuous contraction for more than two months, with a slowdown in personal consumption expenditures and a sub-level decline in the inflation rate in the American market. He pointed out that the prices of gold futures contracts (for delivery next February) rose by 1.6 percent to $2,089 per ounce, while the dollar index, which measures the US currency against major currencies, fell by 0.35 percent to record 103.1 points. He explained that analysts’ pessimistic expectations about the growth of US spending and production for the next year made investors turn to the safe haven (gold), especially with the presence of serious plans by the Federal Reserve (the central bank) to reduce interest rates by 25 basis points during the bank’s regular meeting scheduled for March 2024. He expected that gold prices would witness “significant rises” if expectations were true that the US Central Bank would reduce interest rates by 135 basis points by the end of next year, “and this will certainly lead to an increase in precious metals in the long term.” Al-Fadhli said that the current week will witness the issuance of important reports, the first of which is the US labor jobs report, followed by the purchasing managers’ index for services, in addition to announcements regarding monetary policy in Australia and Canada and data on inflation rates in China and South Korea, “all of which are indicators that will determine gold trends this week.” He believed that the developments of events in the Middle East region will be “strongly present” during this week, as analysts monitor field developments due to the severe impact on the prices of precious metals due to the military operations taking place “and threats to close some commercial waterways.” Regarding the local market, he reported that the price of a gram of 24 karat rose to 20.375 dinars (about 62.2 dollars), while for 22 karat it reached 18.68 dinars (about 57 dollars), while silver closed at 297 dinars (about 905 dollars) per kilogram. It is noteworthy that the ounce is one of the units of mass measurement and is used in a number of different systems of measurement units. It is also called the ounce and is equal to 28.349 grams, while as a unit of measurement for precious metals it is equal to 31.103 grams.