Gold Futures Settle Slightly Lower

Gold futures ended lower on Wednesday as equities gained on stimulus hopes and the dollar exhibited strength.

The yellow metal’s loss was just marginal as uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, and tensions on the Korean peninsula and between India and China limited the advance of riskier assets.

The dollar index rose to 97.34, and despite paring gains subsequently, was still holding in positive territory at 97.15, up nearly 0.2% from previous close.

Gold futures for August ended down $0.90 at $1,735.60 an ounce.

Gold futures had ended with a modest gain of about 0.5% on Tuesday, after losing ground in the preceding two sessions.

Silver futures for July ended up $0.120 at $17.775 an ounce, while Copper futures for July moved up by about 1% to $2.5895 per pound.

In economic news, a report from the Commerce Department showed new residential construction in the U.S. showed a notable rebound in the month of May, jumping by 4.3% to an annual rate of 974,000, after plummeting by 26.4% to a revised rate of 934,000 in April.

Economists had expected housing starts to soar by 22.9% to a rate of 1.095 million from the 891,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, building permits spiked by 14.4% to an annual rate of 1.220 million in May after plunging by 21.4% to a revised rate of 1.066 million in April.

Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to surge up by 14.3% to a rate of 1.228 million from the 1.074 million originally reported for the previous month.

Zoom vows to protect user privacy with end-to-end encryption

Zoom Video Communications is planning to offer all its free and paying users end-to-end encryption for video calls and will launch a trial version in July, the video conferencing provider said on Wednesday.

The company, whose business has boomed with the coronavirus lockdowns forcing more people to work from home, has transformed into a global video hangout from a business-oriented teleconferencing tool.

But it has also come under fire over privacy and security issues, and faced criticism for failing to disclose that its service was not fully end-to-end encrypted.

After a series of security failures resulted in some institutions banning the use of Zoom, the California-based company hired former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos in April and rolled out major upgrades.

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Los Angeles County Coronavirus Update: Number Of New Cases Sets Record, Jumps Far Above Highs Seen Last Week

After two new records in the number of new COVID-19 cases were set last week, County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer revealed a number on Wednesday that far eclipsed those, reporting 2,126.

There were 1633 new cases in the county as of Friday, according to the health department. That’s the third-highest one day total since the outbreak began, according the L.A. county coronavirus dashboard. Ferrer said that Friday’s number included 500 delayed cases from one lab.

On Thursday, the Department of Public Health reported 1,857 new confirmed coronavirus cases. It was the largest single-day number of new cases announced by the county during the pandemic, but health officials said, again, roughly 600 of those cases were the result of a backlog in the reporting of test results. Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments, combined to confirm an additional 84 cases. That gave the county 1,941 new confirmed cases total on Thursday.

Lab delays have occurred nearly every week during the pandemic. Adding delayed numbers into the daily total has been commonplace for the county health department which means that, while not all days have delayed numbers, enough do for these record highs to seem significant.

Treasury Auctions $17 Billion Worth Of Twenty-Year Bonds

After selling twenty-year bonds for the first time since 1986 last month, the Treasury Department on Wednesday announced the results of this month’s auction of $17 billion worth of twenty-year bonds.

The twenty-year bond auction drew a high yield of 1.314 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.63.

Last month, the Treasury sold $20 billion worth of twenty-year bonds, drawing a high yield of 1.220 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.53.

The bid-to-cover ratio is a measure of demand that indicates the amount of bids for each dollar worth of securities being sold.

The reintroduction of the twenty-year bond comes as the government seeks to the extend the time it has to pay off its record debt as deficits skyrocket due in part to the coronavirus crisis.

Brazil central bank cuts interest rate to record-low 2.25%

SAO PAULO, June 17 (Reuters) – Brazil’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points on Wednesday to a record-low 2.25%, as expected, in a move to cushion what may be the country’s worst economic crash on record.

The bank’s rate-setting committee, known as Copom, said its decision was unanimous, citing the economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic. A Reuters survey of 38 economists earlier this month had forecast a second consecutive rate cut of 75 basis points. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever Editing by Brad Haynes)

Brazil central bank cuts interest rate to record-low 2.25%

BRASILIA, June 17 (Reuters) – Brazil’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points on Wednesday to a record-low 2.25%, as expected, in a move to cushion what may be the country’s worst economic crash on record.

The bank’s rate-setting committee, known as Copom, said its decision was unanimous, citing the economic shock from the COVID-19 pandemic. A Reuters survey of 38 economists earlier this month had forecast a second consecutive rate cut of 75 basis points. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever Editing by Brad Haynes)