Gold climbs on the back of poor US retail figures, fears of more COVID-19 infections

Gold is on a tear with prices testing a one-month high due to disappointing economic data from the US and fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, which has dimmed hopes of a swift recovery.

Spot gold is currently trading at $US1,750.30 per ounce, or about $2,723.93 in Australian dollar terms thanks to the favourable exchange rate, up from $US1697.4 per ounce just a week ago.

Silver also climbed more than 8 per cent to $US16.77 per ounce.

According to the US Commerce Department, retail sales fell 16.4 per cent in April, surpassing forecasts of a 12 per cent drop.

“The modern retail sales data series dates back to 1992 and this is double the worst fall on record,” KitcoNews quoted Forexlive.com senior currency strategist Adam Button as saying.

Blue Line Futures chief market strategist Phil Streible told Bloomberg the US retail figures were evidence of a bleak economic picture right now.

“People are continuing to pile into gold, because that weak economic picture is going to continue to drive interest rates lower.”

The gains lend further credence to bullish predictions that gold could hit $US2,000 per ounce or more.

Additionally, the strong demand for gold has seen demand for third-party milling in Western Australia’s Goldfields grow to the point that they have little or no spare capacity left.

ASX small cap gold companies

Kin Mining (ASX:KIN) continues to define new gold mineralisation at the Cardinia Hill and Helens prospects at its Cardinia project near Leonora, Western Australia.

Drilling at Cardinia Hill has highlighted the continuity of shallow mineralisation over a strike length of 500m with results including 7m at 2.44 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 5m at 1.21g/t gold from 13m.

Results of 4m at 4.29g/t gold from 12m and 8m at 1.8g/t gold from 4m have also demonstrated the widespread distribution of shallow gold mineralisation at the adjacent Helens prospect.

Assays are pending for drilling at the Comedy King, Lewis East and Faye Marie prospects.

Meanwhile, Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) has kicked off a geochemistry program to help identify drill targets at its Paterson Central project, which is adjacent to Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) and Greatland Gold’s tier 1 Havieron gold-copper discovery in the Pilbara.

The company has identified 13 targets within a 22km radius of Havieron, with the geochemistry program covering seven of these targets.

It plans to start a drill program in July.