RIYADH: Gold prices held near one-week lows on Tuesday, as investors wagered that aggressive tightening plans by major central banks are going to keep interest rates higher for an extended time, boosting the US Treasury yields and in turn the dollar.
Spot gold was flat at $1,840.16 per ounce, as of 0232 GMT. Earlier in the session, bullion slipped to $1,836.10, its lowest since June 1. US gold futures also eased by 0.1 percent to $1,842.30.
Platinum falls
Platinum fell 0.6 percent to $1,011.21 an ounce, while palladium was steady at $2,002.68.
Silver slipped 0.4 percent to $21.96.
Corn, wheat ease
Chicago corn futures slid on Tuesday, with the better-than-expected condition of the US crop easing concerns over world supplies and adding pressure on prices.
Wheat prices dipped, but the market was holding on to much of last session’s gains on support from concerns about lengthy disruptions to shipments from the Black Sea region as the Russia-Ukraine war intensified.
The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade lost 0.6 percent to $7.38 a bushel, as of 0336 GMT, after rising 2 percent in the previous session.
Wheat slid 0.4 percent to $10.88-3/4 a bushel, after climbing more than 5 percent on Monday, while soybeans gained 0.2 percent at $17.03 a bushel, have finished little changed in the previous session.
Famine risk rises in Somalia as rains fail
Nearly a quarter of a million people are facing starvation in Somalia as drought worsens and global food prices hover near record highs, UN agencies said on Monday.
The agencies said a fourth consecutive rainy season had failed in the Horn of Africa country and meteorologists were warning of another below-average rainy season later this year as the world’s climate becomes more erratic.
At the same time, world food prices are close to record highs hit in March as the Russia-Ukraine war roils markets for staple grains and edible oils.
Around 213,000 Somalis are at risk of starvation, a near three-fold increase from levels expected in April, according to the statement from the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the children’s agency UNICEF and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
They said some 7.1 million Somalis or nearly half the population face acute levels of food insecurity, meaning they will be barely able to get the minimum calories they need and might have to sell assets to survive.
“The lives of the most vulnerable are already at risk from malnutrition and hunger, we cannot wait for a declaration of famine to act,” El-Khidir Daloum, the WFP’s country director in Somalia, said.
Around 3 million livestock have died in Somalia due to the drought since mid-2021, the agencies said.
(With input from Reuters)
