RIYADH: Gold prices edged higher in choppy trade on Monday as a weaker dollar buoyed bullion demand, with a US holiday expected to lead to thin trading during the day.
Spot gold firmed 0.2 percent to $1,843.57 per ounce by 0414 GMT, after falling as much as 0.3 percent earlier in the session. US gold futures gained 0.3 percent to $1,845.40.
Platinum dips
Spot silver rose 0.3 percent to $21.71 per ounce, while platinum dipped 0.1 percent to $931.50.
Palladium climbed 1.7 percent to $1,847.05.
Copper slips
London copper prices fell to an eight-and-a-half month low on Monday, weighed down by a strong dollar and worries that a potential global recession would dent demand for metals.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.1 percent at $8,955 a ton by 0242 GMT, after falling to its lowest since Oct. 1 in early Asian trade.
The most-traded July copper contract in Shanghai fell 1.6 percent to $10,233.49 a ton.
Argentina could revive takeover plan for soymeal giant Vicentin
Argentina, one of the world’s largest food exporters, could seek to nationalize the troubled soymeal giant Vicentin, which has a large debt with the state, President Alberto Fernandez said in an interview with local media on Sunday.
Concerned about high domestic inflation, the center-left government tried to take control of the firm in 2020 to help fix local food prices, which faced strong pushback from the agricultural industry. Vicentin, once Argentina’s top soymeal exporter, is currently bankrupt.
“Now in Vicentin a new scenario is opening up, which in 2020 we did not have, and this gives the possibility of an intervention that I ruled out at that time,” Fernandez said in an interview with the newspaper Pagina 12.
“I backed away from nationalization, but we are still working on the ‘cramdown’ alternative and now there is a scenario where, perhaps, we can do something,” he added.
Banco Nacion, controlled by the Argentine state, is one of the firm’s main creditors. According to local media, Vicentin is $300 million in debt to the bank.
(With input from Reuters)
