KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 — The gold futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to be in a narrow range next week, as investors are expected to remain cautious ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week, while tracking the COMEX gold futures performance.
Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd dealer Lee Pei Wan said investors will be closely monitoring the FOMC minutes to gauge the next gold movement.
Besides that, retail earnings in the US next week will also be in focus.
Meanwhile, AxiCorp chief global market strategist Stephen Innes said gold may dip next week if the US Treasury bond yields and US dollar were to climb.
With US yields moving higher, he said gold will need some help from either dovish US Federal Reserve (Fed) speakers sending yields lower or a big spike in COVID-19 cases.
“But I think gold will be hard-pressed to break the US$2,000 per ounce in near term with positive vaccine news filling the headlines.
“Politics will be also at the cornerstone again as the US Congress continues to dither on a stimulus plan. But if it goes through, it could support the greenback to be on the upper bias, but bad for gold over a short-term period,” he told Bernama.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, August 2020, September 2020 and October 2020 declined 131 ticks to RM260.00, RM258.45 and RM259.70 a gramme, respectively.
Weekly turnover was 14 lots higher worth RM368,250 compared with one lot worth RM27,150 previously, while open interest narrowed to 31 contracts from 48 contracts.
Meanwhile, the price of physical gold dropped RM14.83 to RM253.70 a gramme on Friday compared with RM268.53 a gramme the previous Friday.
