Switzerland exports a record amount of gold to the US

Switzerland exported 126.6 tons of gold to the United States, worth around $7 billion, last May. It is the highest monthly shipment ever recorded. This is because the high prices in New York continued to attract demand for the metal.

Swiss shipments to China and India, generally the world’s two largest gold buyers, stayed very low, even close to zero. The coronavirus crisis has turned the world gold market upside down, with jewelry and bullion purchases in Asia falling sharply. At the same time, investors in the west are sourcing bullion as an asset to withstand a period of turmoil.

Prices on the CME Group’s Comex exchange in New York have been consistently higher than rates elsewhere. It encouraged refineries to send gold to the city. 

Switzerland, a significant hub of precious metal trading and refining, has shipped 281 tons of gold to the United States since early March, 15 times more than was sent in 2019.

Meanwhile, Switzerland shipped 503 kg (0.5 tons) of gold to India, 42 kg to Hong Kong, and no gold to China in May. Each of these destinations generally receives hundreds of tons of metal from Switzerland a year. Since the beginning of March, India has imported 7.6 tons. Hong Kong has bought 195 kg, and China has received nothing.

Gold prices dropped lower, marking a week’s loss

Gold pared with the previous declines in prices after a report from the US Labor Department. Even though the country’s economy shows signs of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the unemployment rate remains high. According to the report, new jobless claims in the country dropped below 2 million from the record number of 6.9 million in March. 

Gold dropped 0.3% on Comex and settled at $1,731 an ounce. The commodity futures traded in a range of $1,670 to $1,770.

According to Chintan Karnani, a chief market analyst at Insignia Consultants, gold price moves and the dollar index imply that traders are sitting on their cash. They are booking profits on every significant technical difficulty and buying on major short-term support. 

The precious metals have been benefiting from the central banks’ monetary efforts to hold back the damage by the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 8 million people worldwide. 

George Gero, a managing director at RBC Wealth Management, expects that next week we will be returning to basics. He is referring to US-China tariffs, elections’ worries in the United States, concerns about digital tax in the Eurozone, India-China and North Korea, and political and economic headlines. All these factors could get gold more buyers for the next week.