Gold at mid-$1,800; Mideast war suggests cautious repricing and measured rally
Investing.com — Gold settled above the mid $1,800 level on Monday in response to the Israel-Hamas war, but the rally in the safe-haven would depend on how far the crisis expands to impact oil and other global markets, analysts said.
Gold’s most-active futures contract on New York’s Comex, December, settled up $19.10, or 1%, at $1,864.30 an ounce. At the time of writing, at 15:30 ET (19:30 GMT), the contract scaled at $1,875.85 after a session high of $1,875.85.
The spot price of gold, more closely watched by some traders than futures, was at $1,861.51, up $28.92, or 1.6%, on the day. The session peak was $1,862.26.
Gold hit 7-month lows last week, with futures reaching $1,859.55, while the spot price tumbled to $1,810.47.
On Monday, as Hamas rockets continued to rain on Israel’s largest city Tel Aviv and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “change the Middle East” with Israel's war against the Palestine militant group, traders in both oil and gold tried to ascertain the immediate impact of the crisis on the two assets.
In focus, particularly, was the potential impact on Iranian oil supply.
Tehran is not only the world’s fifth largest crude exporter but also a vociferous supporter of the Palestine cause — and often initiator of Middle East conflagration.
Iran is tacitly known to be behind Hamas at all times. To reinforce that notion, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Tehran supported the operation against Israel that had reportedly killed some 1,300 people at the time of writing, and led to the abduction of dozens of Israelis by ground forces of the militant group.
John Kilduff, a partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital, who has spent two decades analyzing the impact of Middle East
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