By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Logically, the street protests roiling America should help gold advance or least stay around the key $1,750 per ounce level. But when risk rallies defy logic, the need for safe havens just gets lost.
U.S. gold futures for August settled down $16.30, or 1%, at $1,734 per ounce on Comex after a seventh day of protests across U.S. cities following the death of George Floyd.
The riots raise serious challenges for mayors and governors, particularly those in New York, who are trying to reopen their economy from a three-month shutdown forced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Spot gold, which tracks real-time trades in bullion, slid by $15.02, or 0.9%, to $1,724.98 by 2:32 PM ET (18:32 GMT).
But stocks on Wall Street rallied instead, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting three-month peaks.
“People know they need to be invested in the U.S. equity markets ... but they also need that gold exposure because there’s so much uncertainty,” Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors, told Reuters.
Analysts are at a loss over the immediate direction for gold, with as many appearing to bet that it will stay range-bound between $1,700 and $1,750, as there are those betting for a peak of $1,800.
Gold futures settled above $1,700 on Friday for the first time since November 2012, gaining 2.5% for all of May for a third-straight monthly gain.
Investing.com’s Daily Technical Outlook has a buy on Comex’s August gold, with a max upside of $1785.06. That leaves room for a gain of about $50, or 3%, in the near-term.