Gold at semi-annual highs

The value of gold is at the June highs, while investor demand for risky assets is falling amid political uncertainty in the United States.

As of this morning, the price of the February gold futures on the New York stock exchange Comex rose by 3.85 dollars, or 0.3% - up to 1275.65 USD per troy ounce. The indicator is kept at the highs of the end of June of the current year. The price of March silver futures grew by 0.53% - up to 14.898 USD per ounce.

Economists believe that investors are concerned about the growth prospects of the world economy and are turning to gold as a safe asset, and sales in stock markets provide additional support for the precious metal.

According to them, there is almost always a good demand for gold at the end of the year. It is possible that the cost of gold will overcome the mark of 1.3 thousand dollars in the near future.

The US federal government partially stopped work on December 22 due to the fact that Congress did not have time to agree on a new budget. US President Donald Trump does not intend to sign the document if it does not include funding for the wall on the border with Mexico, but the Democratic Party of the country is not ready to support the document with such spending.

Yesterday, Trump said that a short-term shutdown of a number of federal structures due to the budget crisis will continue until a decision is made to finance the construction of the wall at the border.

Meanwhile, world oil prices in the first half of the trading day do not show a single dynamics after the collapse on Monday by 6% against the background of strong volatility of stock markets.

As of this morning, the price of March futures for Brent oil decreased by 0.1% - to $ 50.72 per barrel, the price of February futures for WTI oil rose by 0.52% - to $ 42.75 per barrel . On Tuesday, oil futures trading was closed due to the celebration of Christmas.

On Monday, the cost of oil of both brands fell by about 6% amid the collapse of stock markets. US indices fell by 2.2-2.9% due to the budget crisis in the United States.