Gold prices edged down in Dubai and globally on Monday morning as the US dollar firmed, while authorities around the world attempted to assuage investor fears of a widespread crisis in the global banking sector.

Spot gold was down 0.13 per cent at $1,973.25 per ounce, as of 9.40 am UAE time.

In the UAE, the 24K opened half a dirham lower at Dh239.0 on Monday morning while 22K, 21K and 18K were trading at Dh221.25, Dh214.25, and Dh183.5 per gram, respectively.

Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer, Zaye Capital Markets, said the precious metal has started the week on the back foot.

“We do see the price shying away from testing its all-time high. But this doesn’t mean that another cycle of retracement is going to begin in terms of the gold price. We believe that the odds are strongly stacked in favour of the gold price for a number of reasons. For instance, we have strong odds of the Fed easing its hawkish monetary policy, and it is likely that we may have already reached the peak in terms of the interest rate cycle; if not, it is highly likely that we are not far from level now,” said Aslam.

“This makes the case a lot stronger for the gold price to move higher as the dollar index will begin to lose steam further. Another interesting element is that the threat of a US banking crisis or a European banking crisis is keeping traders very much on their toes,” he added.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst, Swissquote Bank, said despite the bank stress on both sides of the Atlantic, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank haven’t refrained from hiking the interest rates over the past two weeks, weighing – not necessarily on the health of the banks’ balance sheets, but on worries regarding the health of the banks’ balance sheets.

“Today, it appears that the banking crisis is more of a confidence crisis than a fact-based panic – as it was the case in 2007 when banks really had a bunch of toxic assets in their balance sheets,” he said.

 

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