GOLD rose against a rising US Dollar for the 4th day running on Thursday but silver dropped to a 3-session low as Kyiv accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine as a 'nuclear warning' to its Western allies, while an international arrest warrant issued for Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu accusing him of war crimes in Gaza prompted fury against the ICC and United Nations from incoming US President Trump's national security advisor.

 

"The [International Criminal Court] has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the US government," said retired Green Beret Colonel and Republican Congressman Mike Waltz.

 

 

"You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC and UN come January" when Donald Trump re-takes the White House.

 

Moscow's President Putin is meantime "using Ukraine as a testing ground," said Ukraine's Zelensky today as Kyiv investigated whether a missile fired this morning at the central city of Dnipro from a Russian base over 700 kilometers away was an ICBM, famously capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

 

"WWIII risk has ramped up since Ukraine fired (Biden allowed) American-made long-range missiles into Russia," notes precious metals strategist Nicky Shiels at Swiss bullion refining and finance group MKS Pamp.

 

"There's overall a global super power void as Russia/Ukraine is escalating (and other bad actors/regional conflicts can ‘follow suit’) as much as possible before Trump's inauguration day."

 

 

With silver finding over half its end-use demand from technology and industry versus less than 10% for gold, "The recent divergence in Gold vs Silver prices is indicating this is a gold-specific geopolitical pop," says Shiels.

 

"[This move] suggests silver is under owned here [and] gold overbought. Some stabilization in gold's ascent [will be] a greenlight for silver to play catchup."

 

As it was Thursday, the price of gold reached $2673 per Troy ounce, the highest in 8 sessions, even as the Dollar held close to yesterday's 1-week peak on the currency market.

 

Silver in contrast fell again through $31 per ounce, cutting its rebound so far this week to 1.8% versus gold's jump of 4.1%.

 

The strong Dollar helped Euro gold prices surge to €2540 per ounce, a fresh all-time high only 1 month ago, while the UK gold price also hit 2-week highs above £2112.

 

European natural gas prices rose yet again as the region's cold snap continued, while Brent crude oil edged up to 2-week highs.

 

"The United States should view China’s nuclear buildup as...a short-of-war coercion campaign to dissolve the US alliance system in the Pacific," says an article in Washington establishment magazine Foreign Affairs, citing Pentagon intelligence that Beijing "is quickly closing the gap" with America's 3,700 nuclear warheads by more than doubling its stockpile to 500 in the past 3 years and aiming for "more than 1,000 warheads by 2030."

 

Yi Peng 3 – the Chinese dry bulk cargo ship suspected of being involved in sabotaging undersea telecom cables in the Baltic Sea – is being captained by a Chinese national, not a Russian, Moscow media reported today.

 

"We are looking thoroughly and seriously into it, also in light of the current political situation," said the Danish Minister of Defence today after speaking with German and Swedish counterparts.