Gold looks to the UK and Italy for support

Gold has dropped to its lowest in a month  (-0.3%) and is now looking for support this Monday after breaking below $1,211/oz on Friday. Last week it was the stronger-than-expected US PPI coming just after the Federal Open Market Committee confirmed that further gradual rate hikes are coming that helped send the yellow metal lower. The weakness today has been driven by continued dollar strength, especially against the euro (+0.6%) as the European Commission is ready to escalate its budget battle with Italy. The dollar has also gained versus sterling (+0.8%) as pressure built on the British Prime Minister to ditch her Brexit plan or face defeat in Parliament. 

Following on from last Friday’s PPI, the market will be looking ahead to the release of October US CPI on Wednesday. The headline figure is expected to show a year-on-year rise of 2.5%, up from 2.2% in September. The US bond market has not yet bought into a rising inflation outlook with the 10-year breakeven yield having stayed close to 2.1% all year. As a result of this the equivalent 10-year real yield, currently at 1.13% and up from 0.4% at the beginning of the year, has been rising almost in line with the rise in nominal yield. Rising real yields pose a challenge to gold given the opportunity cost of holding an asset that does not pay a coupon or a dividend.