On Friday (October 13th), due to the escalating geopolitical situation and a significant decrease in US bond yields, international precious metal prices significantly increased.
As of press release, the December gold futures market on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which is the most active trading spot, rose $58.5 to $1941.5 per ounce, or 3.11%, compared to the previous trading day. This week, it has risen 5.2% and has returned to above $1900 since September 28th;
Spot gold also rose by about $60, currently reporting a price of $1930.26 per ounce, an increase of over 3.2%, and a cumulative increase of 5.2% this week. The price of silver futures for December delivery increased by $0.93 to $22.895 per ounce, an increase of 4.26%, with a cumulative increase of 5.4% this week.
Market analysts believe that the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the main reason for the sharp rise in gold prices on that day. Tom di Galoma, Managing Director and Joint Head of Global Interest Rate Trading at BTIG, said, "Today is a safe haven day... investors basically buy safe assets
On early Friday local time, the Israeli Defense Forces notified the United Nations that all Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip should relocate to the southern Gaza Strip within 24 hours. Shortly before the release, according to CCTV News, the Israeli Defense Forces announced that they were conducting "large-scale" air strikes on multiple Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
According to reports from CCTV News, Israeli media quoted a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces that Israeli infantry and tanks entered the Gaza Strip on the 13th for a "localized attack". The purpose is to clear the area of "hostile armed personnel" and search for missing Israelis.
In response, New York University Business School professor Rubini, known as the "Dr. Doomsday," believes that the market clearly underestimates the risk of large-scale conflicts in the entire Middle East region. World Bank President Ajay Banga also stated that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has complicated the development path of the global economy and poses a great challenge to central banks.
Under the influence of strong hedging demand, the yield of US bonds also declined significantly, with the yield of US 10-year treasury bond bonds falling back to 4.629%. Another reason is that Philadelphia Fed Chairman Huck recently stated that the Federal Reserve can stop raising interest rates as price pressures continue to weaken.
However, the decline in US bond yields did not bring much boost to the US stock market. Although JPMorgan Chase's performance marked a good start for the Q3 financial reporting season, as of press release, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell by more than 1%, with only the Dow Jones Index maintaining a 0.1% increase.
In addition, the VIX, known as the panic index, rose by over 16% to 19.47, and briefly broke below 20 within the day.