Platinum price forecasts of the fourth day of gains have been truncated as the industrial metal lost early gains and is now trading 1.45% lower. The decline in the XPT/USD pair has come on the back of a renewed strengthening in the US Dollar as the New York session kicked in.
A new round of risk aversion appears to be taking hold of the markets after China reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases. This is more than 270 cases higher than the previous day, sparking concerns of lower demand for industrial metals. Platinum prices had picked up in early 2021 after the Chinese economy reopened and demand surged.
However, the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 soured sentiment on industrial metals, leading to a steep drop from the 2022 highs at close to 1200 to the current levels under the $900-mark. The renewed rally seen recently came as the UK sanctioned Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, the principal shareholder of Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel.
The platinum and Nickel producer’s sanction caused a 6% spike when it was announced. However, the trend on the metal remains bearish, and only a defence of the current support prevents a renewal of the decline.
The break of the descending channel’s upper border has met resistance at the 868.025 barrier (61.8% Fibonacci retracement from the swing high of 29 June to the 14 July swing low). This has led to a pullback toward 850.956.
Continuation of the recovery move requires a bounce on the current support and break of the 868.025 resistance, giving the bulls clear skies to aim for 906.375 (29 April low). 926.934 (23 June high) and 951.786 (21 June high) are additional price barriers to the north that become harvest points for aggressive bulls.
Conversely, a price break of the 850.956 support opens the door toward 838.570 (5 July 2022 low). Additional downside targets are found at the 796.996 price mark () and the 751.358 support level.
This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 16:54