July 27 (Lagos) - Gold futures for August delivery rose $30 to hit a all time high above $1900 an ounce. The safe heaven has been hot throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected by analysts to keep climbing until the Geo-political tensions in the world begin to cool off.
Geo-political tensions showed no signs of cooling off anytime soon with North Korea announcing their first Covid-19 case as a person who swam across from South Korea. This person had previously defected from the North to the South but now returned back to the North. The South claimed that he did not have the corona-virus but the North has now announced their first case. This is likely to flare up tensions in the Korean peninsula.
US-China relations continued to deteriorate further as China ordered the US to shut its consulate in Chengdu as a tit-for-tat measure for closure of its consulate in Houston earlier in the week.
Bitcoin surged 6% and crossed the $10,000 mark today as well. That is almost getting to N 4.7 million for 1 bitcoin going by the parallel market rates. Other crypto-currencies are up sharply today as well in early trade.
Bad employment figures led to the market sell-off at the end of last week but there is great data coming from retail sales, housing numbers and manufacturing sector in the US.
The Dollar weakened but that did not affect the Naira on the parallel market where it kept on falling to 472 to $1. However for investors who bought the NEWGOLD ETF the devaluation is not really an issue because they stand to gain with the advance in Gold price.
reporting for easykobo.com on Monday, July 27 2020 from Lagos, Nigeria