Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
Contract gold eked out a 0.4% gain for the week after being bumped by concerns over crude oil, Iran and a weaker dollar.
April gold’s $20 an ounce move higher on Friday to above $1,660 an ounce was tracking the advance of crude futures which jumped more than 2% to as high as $108 a barrel.
The price of oil was buoyed by the release of a report that Iranian oil exports could slump by 300,000 barrels a day as sanctions begin to bite in the Middle Eastern country.
The Wall Street Journal reports a full embargo of Tehran will kick in on July 1st:
“The only thing that’s got us up is oil,” said Frank McGhee, senior precious metals dealer with Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago. “The tighter the oil gets, the more likely we’ll have a conflict.”
1980’s record gold price of $850 an ounce was set after a spike in oil prices following the Iranian revolution.
It took almost three decades for gold to breach the $850-level, which it did at the start of 2008. However, in inflation adjusted terms the 1980 price is still the highest ever – gold would have to hit some $2,400 an ounce to set a record in today’s money.
