Gold Futures Settle Lower For 2nd Straight Day

Gold prices drifted lower on Tuesday as riskier assets such as equities rose, with traders betting on hopes the reopening of businesses will help boost an economic recovery.

Profit taking after recent gains also contributed to the precious metal’s fall for a second successive session.

However, growing unrest in several states across America due to protests over the killing of an unarmed person by the police and rising concerns about U.S.-China tensions limited gold’s slide. A weaker dollar also supported gold at lower levels.

The dollar index slipped to 97.43 earlier in the day but recovered some lost ground subsequently. It was last seen hovering around 97.70, down 0.14% from previous close.

Gold futures for August ended down $16.60 or about 0.9% at $1,734.00 an ounce.

Silver futures for July ended lower by $0.567 at $18.260 an ounce, while copper futures for July settled at $2.4910 per pound, gaining $0.0205 for the session.

As businesses begin to reopen gradually, traders expect an economic recovery will pick-up steam and result in improved revenues for corporate houses.

On U.S.-China front, Chinese state-owned companies have reportedly been ordered to pause purchase of U.S. farm goods, including soybeans.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military to quell civil unrest erupting across the nation over George Floyd’s death.

Treasuries Move To The Downside Amid Strength On Wall Street

Treasuries moved lower over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the modest drop seen in the previous session.

Bond prices recovered after an initial drop but moved back to the downside as the day progressed. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 1.8 basis points to 0.680 percent.

The weakness among treasuries came as stocks on Wall Street extended a recent upward trend amid optimism about an economy recovery as businesses reopen.

Economists have repeatedly warned that the recovery will take time, but traders have seemingly shrugged off those concerns as stocks continue to recover from their March lows.

Traders have also largely ignored the mass protests across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

The protests have turned violent in many instances, but traders appear to believe that the unrest will be curtailed before having any meaningful impact on the economy.

Following today’s lack of major U.S. economic data, trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to reports on private sector employment, service sector activity and factory orders.

Crude Oil Futures Settle At Nearly 3-month High

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid expectations the OPEC-led productions cuts will be extended well beyond the previously agreed period.

A Genscape report on Monday showing a drop in crude stockpiles in Cushing, Oklahoma, also buoyed prices ahead of the American Petroleum Institute’s inventory report due out later in the day.

The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly crude inventory data on Wednesday.

A section of traders are worried that growing tensions between the U.S. and China over the Hong Kong issue and the likely consequences may result in a drop in energy demand.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended up $1.37 or nearly 4% at $36.81 a barrel, the highest close since early March.

Brent crude futures for August rose $1.25 or about 3.3% to 39.57 a barrel.

The 23-nation OPEC+ group is set to meet online on June 4. It is widely expected that the cartel will extend output cuts through July or August.

Earlier, they had agreed to cut total oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day in May – June.

They had agreed in April to cut their total oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day from May 1 through June 30.

American Superconductor Corporation Q4 adjusted earnings Inline With Estimates

Below are the earnings highlights for American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC):

-Earnings: -$5.89 million in Q4 vs. -$8.35 million in the same period last year.
-EPS: -$0.27 in Q4 vs. -$0.41 in the same period last year.
-Excluding items, American Superconductor Corporation reported adjusted earnings of -$5.12 million or -$0.24 per share for the period.
-Analysts projected -$0.24 per share
-Revenue: $18.14 million in Q4 vs. $14.59 million in the same period last year.

-Guidance:
Next quarter EPS guidance: $0.25
Next quarter revenue guidance: $18 – $20 Mln

Seattle Bar Owner Says the Crisis Is Different for Older Entrepreneurs

LISTEN TO ARTICLE

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

The One Year, One Neighborhood series follows small businesses in the Pike/Pine corridor in Seattle, the first coronavirus hot spot in the U.S., to get a sense of what cities will look like as they reopen.

Linda Derschang has been a business owner in Seattle’s Capitol Hill for three decades. She currently runs two establishments in the neighborhood: Oddfellows Café and Linda’s Tavern, a bar that became a popular haunt for the city’s musicians when it opened in 1994. (Morbid fact: It was the last place Kurt Cobain was seen alive.) Dershang says the Covid-19 crisis is impacting younger business owners differently than people such as her, who are in their early 60s and were hoping to retire soon. “I feel like—sometimes—I was at mile 20 or 24 of a marathon,” she says. “This has set me back to mile 15.”