Gold priced in the Dollar hit $2551 per Troy ounce, some $20 above mid-August's new high, while the gold price in Euro terms broke through €2300.

 

That put gold 23.5% higher for 2024 to date in EUR against a 23.4% gain in USD terms and 20.0% for the UK gold price in British Pounds, which held just shy of mid-April's peak.

 

 

"The risks to Euro-area economic growth remain tilted to the downside," said ECB President Christine Lagarde to journalists after the 20-nation central bank cut its main deposit rate by 0.25 points to 3.50% per annum.

 

But the worsening violence and death-tolls in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza remain "major sources of geopolitical risk", she went on, which could push energy prices and global freight costs higher.

 

Donald Trump's plans to hike US import tariffs should he win a second term in the White House in November's election risk "history repeating" the Republican candidate's first term, says shipping price platform Xeneta's chief analyst Peter Sand, "and will cause a spike in ocean container shipping markets with consumers picking up the cost."

 

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But having already halved by early September from their post-pandemic peak, global shipping costs on the Drewry WCI composite index just saw another dramatic fall, with Shanghai to Rotterdam quotes down 17% and Shanghai to New York seeing a record weekly plunge of 21%. 

 

Tracking wholesale prices paid to US businesses, the Producer Prices indices for both commodities and manufacturing last month fell back into year-on-year deflation, today's data said, with the overall 'core' rate excluding food and energy failing to accelerate from 2.4% annual inflation as analysts had forecast.

 

Crude oil today bounced from its lowest since December 2021 while copper extended its rally from plunging by 1/4 from May's new all-time highs.

 

Longer-term borrowing costs edged higher in the bond market however, rising from yesterday's 2024-to-date low of 2.10% per annum on 10-year German Bunds and edging up from Wednesday's 16-month low of 3.61% on 10-year US Treasury debt 

 

Having waited until Eurozone inflation jumped towards 10% per year – led by energy prices jumping as steeply as during the worst phases of the 1970s' oil crises – before finally raising overnight deposit rates from below zero in summer 2022, "Que sera sera," said ECB President Christine Lagarde in her post-decision press conference, repeating that "the Governing Council will continue to follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach" rather than discussing or giving any guidance on future decisions.

 

The UK gold price in Pounds per ounce meantime came within £1 of mid-April's spot trading peak of £1954.

 

Silver prices also jumped, adding nearly 75 cents per ounce around the ECB decision and PPI data to hit 2-week highs at $29.44.

 

China's stock market hit a new 5-year low overnight, but European bourses rose while New York equities opened the day flat.