FxWirePro: Bullion prices to blur glittering in Q4 – Bid shorts in far-month futures

As gold loses its glittering in 4Q, Gold prices pushed back above $1,300 per oz as weaker-than-expected economic data saw investors reduce their probability of a rate hike by the (US Federal Reserve),” ANZ Research said on Monday.

The US consumer price index (CPI) and core CPI for last month both disappointed at 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively.

It is reckoned that the recent support platinum enjoyed from July through early September will continue to break down as well, especially given that the fundamentals for platinum are not compelling, to say the least.

Moreover, as fresh longs established amidst the rally in prices over the last couple months have driven net positioning long again to nearly 24,000 contracts, almost level with the peak in net length reached earlier this year, we see length approaching stretched levels.

As such, we see prices declining to average $930/oz in 4Q’17 before weakening further to $910/oz in 1Q’2018. On September 27, 2017, we elected to take half profit on our position and trail our stop for the remaining half unit to $950/oz as prices approached a key technical make or break at between $923/oz and $890/oz.

In the other precious metals, the spot silver price was down by $0.02 to $17.34-17.36 per oz.

Platinum was $2 lower at $939-944 per oz, 

Contemplating Fed’s rate hike hopes, held shorts in NYMEX platinum for Jan’18 delivery at a price of $978.90/oz during mid-September 2017.

Booked partial profits very recently at 924.10/oz for a gain of 3.0%, but still, like to uphold half proportion after offloading.

We foresee the trade target at $880/oz with a stop for the remaining 0.5 units at $950/oz.

The outstanding half unit is marked to market on October 6, 2017, at $914.84/oz for a gain of $32.03/oz or 3.3%.