HSBC-Precious Metals Daily Gold up on Fed criticism concerns；this can keep prices firm-20250718

Market focus, emerging trends

Gold moved up in Asia and London trading, supported by Chinese bank buying ondips. Some central bank lending may also have limited gains. The EFP market wasvery quiet and underlying physical demand weak. Silver was well bid despite being ata high price, receiving supported from higher copper and gold prices. Platinum andpalladium both continued to outperform the other precious metals. Chinese buyingwas met by Japanese selling, but prices moved up. The platinum forward marketremains tight and lease rates jumped, denoting underlying physical tightness. Therewas a near scramble for the physical metal, which also boosted palladium.

Gold continued to be well bid in US hours. A weak USD helped push gold up via riskchannels. Some investors still focused on dovish (therefore gold bullish) commentsmade Thursday by Fed Governor Waller. US data were gold positive. June single-family housing starts fell 4.6%, with permits for single-family homebuilding down3.7%. A University of Michigan survey showed consumers' 12-month inflationexpectations fell to a five-month low of 4.4% in July from 5.0% in June. Long-runinflation expectations fell to 3.6%, also the lowest level since February, and from4.0% last month. This helped keep gold firm as did news that President Trumpescalated demands in trade negotiations with the EU. Silver rallied, also aided byhigher copper prices. The PGMs surged, supported by concerns over tighter physicalsupply as a major South African producer reported lower sales. Profit taking erasedgains by the close, however.