Gold surged to a two-year high early Friday morning as the results of a referendum tilted sharply towards the UK leaving the European Union.
Gold for August delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was last up $66.40, or 5.1 percent, at $1,329.90 per ounce. Trade has ranged from $1,252.80 to $1,362.60, which was the highest price since March 2014.
“The early results from the UK referendum are a shock to global markets – yesterday’s trading performance suggested the ‘remain’ vote would likely win, but that has changed this morning, with gold up and industrial metals down,” William Adams, FastMarkets head of research, said.
The BBC and New York Times have forecast that the UK has voted to leave. At last count, 301 out of 382 areas have declared, the leave camp had 52 percent of the vote and a 700,000 vote lead.
The pound fell to a 30-year low of 1.3470 against the dollar, down 10 percent, while the yen dropped to 99, a 6.6 percent drop.
“The impact is widespread, therefor developments could cause contagion in that it could prompt intervention from central banks,” Adams added.
In the equity markets, the Nikkei and Hang Seng were down 3.05 percent and 3.64 percent respectively, while the pre-market FTSE is off 7.5 percent.
As for other commodities, Comex copper was down 6.25 cents, or 2.89 percent, at $2.10 per pound, while light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex were at $47.39 per barrel, down $2.72 or 5.42 percent.
The post Gold surges as UK votes to leave Europe; pound and equities plummet appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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Source: Bullion Desk News
