ASIA GOLD Gold demand in key Asian hubs improves amid price correction
Spot gold hit its lowest level in a month on Wednesday and was headed for third consecutive weekly loss.
"This week, footfall was better than last week. Buyers were inquiring about price trends and making small purchases," said a Pune-based jeweller.
Domestic gold prices were trading around 97,700 rupees per 10 grams on Friday after rising to 100,555 rupees last week.
Discounts offered by Indian dealers narrowed to as much as $7 an ounce over official domestic prices, inclusive of 6% import and 3% sales levies, compared to up to $15 last week.
Jewellers were keen to make purchases to replenish inventory after a correction in overseas prices, but a significant drop in the rupee offset the impact of the price fall to an extent, said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a private bank.
India's gold consumption in 2025 is set to fall to a five-year low, as record-high prices are denting jewellery purchases, the World Gold Council said on Thursday.
In China, dealers quoted gold in a wide range, between a discount of $4.2 and a premium of $12 per ounce above international rates.
"China appears to slightly buy the dip in gold... trading volume for the physical proxy contract AU9999 on the Shanghai Gold Exchange has been on the rise (11 tons traded yesterday), reflecting a renewed interest in the metal," said Hugo Pascal, a precious metals trader at InProved.
In Hong Kong gold was sold at par to a $1.50 premium, while Singapore prices ranged from par to a $1.40 premium.
In Japan, bullion was sold at par to a premium of $0.60.
"There was lots of demand to buy if the price dropped even slightly. Regardless of the Japan-U.S. trade deal, gold is being purchased as an asset class amid low interest rates," a Japan-based trader said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
a minute ago
- Sky News
Tech companies are racing to make their products smaller - and much, much thinner
Some of the world's leading tech companies are betting big on very small innovations. Last week, Samsung released its Galaxy Z Fold 7 which - when open - has a thickness of just 4.2mm, one of the slimmest folding phones ever to hit the market. And Honor, a spin-off from Chinese smartphone company Huawei, will soon ship its latest foldable - the slimmest in the world. Its new Honor Magic V5 model is only 8.8mm thick when folded, and a mere 4.1mm when open. Apple is also expected to release a foldable in the second half of next year, according to a note by analysts at JPMorgan published this week. The race to miniaturise technology is speeding up, the ultimate prize being the next evolution in consumer devices. Whether it be wearable devices, such as smartglasses, watches, rings or foldables - there is enormous market potential for any manufacturer that can make its products small enough. Despite being thinner than its predecessor, Honor claims its Magic V5 also offers significant improvements to battery life, processing power, and camera capabilities. Hope Cao, a product expert at Honor told Sky News the progress was "due largely to our silicon carbon battery technology". These batteries are a next-generation breakthrough that offers higher energy density compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries, and are becoming more common in consumer devices. Honor also told Sky News it had used its own AI model "to precisely test and find the optimum design, which was both the slimmest, as well as, the most durable." However, research and development into miniaturisation goes well beyond just folding phones. A company that's been at the forefront of developing augmented reality (AR) glasses, Xreal, was one of the first to release a viable pair to the consumer market. Xreal's Ralph Jodice told Sky News "one of our biggest engineering challenges is shrinking powerful augmented reality technology into a form factor that looks and feels like everyday sunglasses". Xreal's specs can display images on the lenses like something out of a sci-fi movie - allowing the wearer to connect most USB-C compatible devices such as phones, laptops and handheld consoles to an IMAX-sized screen anywhere they go. Experts at The Metaverse Society suggest prices of these wearable devices could be lowered by shifting the burden of computing from the headset to a mobile phone or computer, whose battery and processor would power the glasses via a cable. However, despite the daunting challenge, companies are doubling down on research and making leaps in the area. Social media giant Meta is also vying for dominance in the miniature market. Meta's Ray-Ban sunglasses (to which they recently added an Oakley range), cannot project images on the lenses like the pair from Xreal - instead they can capture photos, footage and sound. When connected to a smartphone they can even use your phone's 5G connection to ask Meta's AI what you're looking at, and ask how to save a particular type of houseplant for example. Gareth Sutcliffe, a tech and media analyst at Enders Analysis, tells Sky News wearables "are a green field opportunity for Meta and Google" to capture a market of "hundreds of millions of users if these devices sell at similar rates to mobile phones". Li-Chen Miller, Meta's vice president of product and wearables, recently said: "You'd be hard-pressed to find a more interesting engineering problem in the company than the one that's at the intersection of these two dynamics, building glasses [with onboard technology] that people are comfortable wearing on their faces for extended periods of time ... and willing to wear them around friends, family, and others nearby." Mr Sutcliffe points out that "Meta's R&D spend on wearables looks extraordinary in the context of limited sales now, but should the category explode in popularity, it will be seen as a great strategic bet." Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's long-term aim is to combine the abilities of both Xreal and the Ray-Bans into a fully functioning pair of smartglasses, capable of capturing content, as well as display graphics onscreen. However, despite recently showcasing a prototype model, the company was at pains to point out that it was still far from ready for the consumer market. This race is a marathon not a sprint - or as Sutcliffe tells Sky News "a decade-long slog" - but 17 years after the release of the first iPhone, people are beginning to wonder what will replace it - and it could well be a pair of glasses.
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Why Donald Trump's tariffs take aim at Asia and your iPhones
When he began his trade war, President Donald Trump said his goal was to bring American jobs and manufacturing back to the US, reduce trade deficits and create a more level playing field for American companies competing globally. But after months of negotiations and many countries' refusal to meet America's demands, his strategy has taken a more punitive companies have been here before. Under Trump's first administration, when he imposed tariffs on Chinese exports, they scrambled to limit their exposure to Beijing, with many shifting production to Vietnam, Thailand and India to avoid higher levies. But his battery of new tariffs does not spare any of these economies. Stocks saw a sell-off, with benchmark indexes in Taiwan and South Korea in the red on Friday. Both countries are central to Asia's sprawling electronics production. The details are still hazy, but US firms from Apple to Nvidia will likely be paying more for their supply chains - they source critical components from several Asian countries and assemble devices in the they are on the hook - for iPhones, chips, batteries, and scores of other tiny components that power modern lives. It's not good news for Asian economies that have grown and become richer because of exports and foreign investment - from Japanese cars to South Korean electronics to Taiwanese chips. Soaring demand for all these goods fuelled trade surpluses with Washington over the years - and has driven President Trump's charge that Asian manufacturing has been taking American jobs away. In May, Trump told Apple CEO Tim Cook: "We put up with all the plants you built in China for years... we are not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves." Apple earns roughly half its revenue by selling iPhones that are manufactured in China, Vietnam and India. The tech giant reported bumper earnings for the three months to June, hours before Trump's tariff announcement on Thursday night, but now the future looks more executive Tim Cook told analysts on a conference call that tariffs had already cost Apple $800m (£600m) in the previous quarter, and may add $1.1bn in costs to the next quarter. Tech companies typically plan years ahead, but Trump's unpredictable tariff policy has paralysed businesses. Amazon's online marketplace, for instance, is just as dependent on China for what it sells in the US. But it's not yet clear what rates Chinese imports into the US could face because Beijing has yet to strike a deal with Washington - it has until 12 August to do so. Before they agreed to de-escalate, the two sides imposed tit-for-tat tariffs that reached a staggering 145% on some goods. But it's no longer just about China. On Thursday, Mr Cook said that most iPhones sold in the US now come from India. But Trump has just levelled a 25% tariff on Indian imports, after Delhi was unable to clinch a deal in time. Other firms chose to re-route their goods bound for the US through Vietnam and Thailand after the tariffs in Trump's first term. It became so common that it was called the "China+1" strategy. But this time, these trans-shipped goods are also being targeted. In fact, trans-shipping has been a big part of the US negotiations with Asian countries. Vietnamese imports face a 20% US levy but trans-shipped goods face 40%, according to Trump. It's harder still for advanced manufacturing like semiconductors - more than half of the world's chips, and most of its advanced ones, come from Taiwan. It is now subject to a 20% tariff. Chips are the backbone of Taiwan's economy, but also central to US efforts to gain a technological lead over China. So it is another US company, Nvidia, that will pay steep levies to put advanced chips by Taiwan's TSMC inside its AI products. But perhaps the biggest casualty of Trump's tariffs could well be Asia's e-commerce giants - as well as the American companies that rely on Chinese sellers and marketplaces. In a surprise move this week, Trump ditched the "de minimis" rule which exempted parcels under $800 from customs duties. He first did this in May, targeting such parcels from China and Hong Kong - and this was a blow for retailers like Shein and Temu, whose huge success has come from online sales in the West. Now American sites like eBay and Etsy have also lost that exemption - and the price of second-hand, vintage and handmade items for US customers will go up. President Trump says he is batting for Americans with these tariffs, but in a deeply globalised world, US firms and customers could also become casualties. There is still so much uncertainty that it is hard to see who the winners really are.
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Bessent says US has 'makings of a deal' with China
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday that he believed that Washington has the makings of a deal with China and that he was "optimistic" about the path forward. "This week's negotiations in Stockholm have advanced our talks with China, and I believe that we have the makings of a deal that will benefit both of our great nations," Bessent said in a post on X that was subsequently deleted. "I am optimistic about the path forward," he added. A Treasury Department spokesperson said the post was being reposted because the images attached to it had not uploaded correctly. The spokesperson also noted that the language in the post was in line with what Bessent had said in various media interviews this week. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Bessent said the United States believes it has the makings of a trade deal with China, but it is "not 100% done." U.S. negotiators "pushed back quite a bit" over two days of trade talks with the Chinese in Stockholm this week, Bessent told CNBC. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals.
