【TOP1 Evening】Gold price is going to drop below 1,700 while US dollar soars!

Gold: The price of gold fell to an eight-month low

Spot gold fell 0.3% to US$1,717.99 per ounce, and earlier hit US$1,706.70, the lowest since June 15. US gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,716.10.

Silver fell 1.2% to US$26.15 per ounce, and earlier fell to a low of more than a month; Palladium fell 0.1% to US$2,346.67. Platinum fell 0.9% to 1,174.50 per ounce.

The world's largest gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) held positions on Monday fell to its lowest level since May 2020.

Nicholas Frappell, global general manager of ABC Bullion, said: "At present, the bull market in gold prices is not over. The ever-changing interest rate environment poses challenges."

Crude oil: Crude oil futures fell

The April crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange had a 1.58% drop before the deadline, trading at USD59.68 per barrel. Nymex, Brent crude oil prices fell 1.51% in May to USD62.73 per barrel; while the contract price of Brent crude oil and crude oil was set at USD3.05 per barrel.

A strong US dollar, market expectations that OPEC+ will increase production this week, and increased exports from Iraq and Venezuela have put oil prices under pressure again. Oil prices closed down for the third consecutive trading day and hit a week low.

OPEC+ will hold a meeting on March 4 to discuss oil production and April quotas. S&P Global Platts (S&P GlobalPlatts) pointed out in an editorial that Russia and Saudi Arabia still have opposing positions.

Many analysts believe that the market can absorb the 1.5 million barrels per day increase in production without surplus, but the immediate release of production may panic the market and rupture the upward trend in crude oil prices. However, maintaining production cuts may overheat the market and weaken still fragile oil demand.

Forex: U.S. dollar jumps to three-week high

The US dollar index closed at 91.01, up 0.10%, hitting the highest level since February 8 at 91.14 and the lowest hitting 90.68. Last week, the US dollar index rose 0.58 or 0.64%.

The euro/dollar fell 0.23% to 1.2047. Due to the lagging economic growth expectations in the euro zone, the euro’s performance is weak; AUD/USD closed at 0.7773 in late trading and fell to 0.7693 last Friday; the safe-haven currency yen traded at 106.75 against the US dollar in late trading, which is the lowest since August 28 In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin rose by 7.55% to $48,699, but it is still below the record high of $58,354.14 set on February 21.

Stock market: European stock markets generally opened lower, and Japanese stock markets closed down

Major European stock markets generally opened lower. The European Stoxx 50 Index fell 0.30%, the UK FTSE 100 Index fell 0.40%, Germany’s DAX Index fell 0.36%, Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.41%, Spain’s BEX Index fell 0.25%, and France The CAC 40 index fell 0.12%.

Many market participants are planning to take advantage of the 87% increase in the Nikkei Index in the past year. This wave of gains has allowed the index to hit a new high in more than 30 years.

The Nikkei index .N225 closed down 0.86% to 29,408.17 points, and the top stock index .TOPX closed 0.4% lower to 1,894.85 points. Both indexes rose more than 2% on Monday.

"I don't expect the stock market to enter a downward trend, but we have already risen too high. It will take at least a month for the market to consolidate," said Shi Jinchun, chief fund manager of Mitsubishi UFJ International Investment Trust.