Gold carried on rising during the session. The background to its uptrend includes factors such as interest rates falling and central bank buying. The price rose to another record high, above US$2630.

On the FX front AUD/USD rose also, approaching highs last seen late year.

USD/JPY ticked higher, towards 144.50. It was a Japanese market holiday today.

News flow was light, with some politics:

  • exit polls show German leader Scholz's centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) won Sunday's regional election in stronghold Brandenburg by a very narrow margin
  • US House Republicans have announced a stopgap funding bill through to December that’ll be voted on this week

Data flow was light also, lower tier releases from New Zealand and Australia.

The People’s Bank of China cut 10bp from the 14-day reverse repo rate, to 1.85%, down from 1.95%. Speculation had been insistent of a cut from the PBoC, but this is a piecemeal effort only. The 7-day reverse repo is now the main policy rate targeted by the Bank. This was left unchanged. And, only on Friday the Bank left loan prime rates unchanged. The 5-year LPR is the benchmark for mortgage rates which remain high even as the property sector continues to implode.

Of interest to the oil people, Shell is to shutter two oil facilities in the Gulf due to the threat of cyclone.

Gold:

gold record high 23 September 2024 2