Total holdings of gold held in exchange traded products dropped for the first time in four weeks last week by 1 ton to 1,953.7 tons (source: Bloomberg). Having reached 1,433.80 USD/oz on August 28, the subsequent drift lower triggered some light selling. Investors are now trying to gauge the impact of a potential escalation in the Middle East conflict while factoring in the impact of any US Federal Reserve tapering which is still expected to be announced next week.
Holdings in silver dropped for the first time in five weeks after reaching a new record the previous week.