Gold up on softer dollar; platinum and palladium at multi-year lows

04-Aug (Reuters) – Gold rose on Tuesday as the dollar weakened after soft U.S. economic data, while platinum and palladium hit multi-year lows on oversupply and sluggish autocatalysts demand.

Platinum dipped to its lowest since January 2009 at $940.50 an ounce, while palladium hit a near three-year low of $586.30 an ounce.

…”Industrial metals were hit hard in the wake of yesterday’s poor Chinese manufacturing data and headlines that the Chinese auto industry is facing significant headwinds,” MKS PAMP said in a note.

…A softer dollar helped relieve the pressure on gold. It was down 0.2 percent against a basket of currencies, pegged back by U.S. factory activity and consumer spending data on Monday that suggested the world’s largest economy may have lost some momentum in the past two months.

Despite weaker data, economists believe the U.S. central bank could still be on course to lift rates this year. The next main macro economic event is the release of U.S. nonfarm payrolls data on Friday.

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