Gold hits 2-month high as recession concerns burnish safe-haven appeal

Agencies

June 3, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 3: Gold prices rose on Monday to their highest in more than two months as heightened China-US trade tensions and Washington’s threat of tariffs on Mexico stoked worries of a global recession and drove investors to seek refuge in safe-haven bullion.

Spot gold was up 0.5 per cent at USD 1,312.37 per ounce at 0308 GMT, after touching its highest since March 27 at USD 1,312.60.

US gold futures rose 0.5 per cent to USD 1,317.50 an ounce.

“We are seeing a lot of traditional safe-haven hedging ... coming back to the fray,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner, SPI Asset Management.

“(Equity) markets seemed to be a little bit complacent. What caught them off-guard was Trump doubled down, signalling that (dealings between countries) on the trade war front is going to be quite aggressive.”

US stock futures, Asian share markets and oil prices slipped to multi-month lows on Monday amid the mounting trade worries.

Tensions between the United States and China escalated during the weekend as the two countries clashed over trade, technology and security.

“(Gold) markets are underpositioned and that’s why we are seeing investors aggressively chasing prices. There are bets getting placed on a more aggressive rate cut, another reason why we are seeing prices moving higher,” Innes said.

In a sign that Sino-US frictions are putting a big strain on the global economy, South Korea’s exports fell 9.4 per cent in May, worse than a median forecast for a 5.6 per cent decline, official data showed on Saturday.

The gloomy outlook has prompted traders to increase bets that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates sooner rather than later.

“Gold finally behaved like a safe haven last week, breaking out higher after the trade war escalation led to a code red for global growth,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.

Gold prices surpassed the key USD 1,300 level for the first time since April on Friday after being stuck in a nearly USD 20 range for weeks.

Hedge funds and money managers increased their net long positions in COMEX gold in the week to May 28, data showed.

Indicating improved investor interest in gold, holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.32 per cent to 743.21 tonnes on Friday from Thursday.

In other precious metals, silver edged up 0.6 per cent to USD 14.65 per ounce; platinum rose 1 per cent to USD 799.73 per ounce, after having fallen to its lowest level since Feb. 15 at USD 784.42, last week; and palladium rose 1.7 per cent to USD 1,347.10 per ounce.

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Siddaramaiah says BJP trying to destabilise Congress government in Rajasthan

News Network

July 28,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 28: Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Monday alleged that BJP is trying to destabilise the Congress government in Rajasthan.

"It is the duty of the Governor to act according to the decision of the state cabinet. But he is acting like a central government puppet," he said at a protest organised here by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

He said the Congress is protesting across the country to save democracy and save the constitution.

"We are not fighting through violence. We are protesting peacefully. The Constitution has given the right to protest in a democratic system," he said.

He accused the BJP of "being disrespectful" to the Constitution.

"Governments must walk within the framework of the Constitution. The Constitution gives everyone rights and duties. BJP destabilises elected governments and buys our legislators by horse-trading by spending crores of money. The same thing happened in Karnataka as well," he alleged.

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People do not utilise time as they should while travelling

Agencies

January 12,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 12: A recent study has claimed that people end up wasting almost an entire day when they take a vacation.

This can happen while standing in a queue or searching for places to visit, people do not keep a count of the time they have actually utilised during the trip. As a result, they end up doing much lesser activities than they originally had planned.

According to a recent report in Fox News, the study has also shared the fact that people try to justify time waste with planning and scheduling activities whereas the truth is that these things can be done well ahead to save time during the trip.

The average time waste according to the study commissioned by Sykes Holiday Cottages also said the people taking a seven days' trip waste a minimum of 17-and-a-half hours to figure out various factors.

But there are other causes involved as well. When one visits any crowded location, the real-time spent to enjoy the location is lesser than the time spent on reaching and trying to get involved. For instance, if one visits an amusement park, the activities take lesser time than the preparatory and other phases.

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Merriam-Webster to redefine ‘racism’ after request

Agencies

June 10,2020

US dictionary Merriam-Webster will update the meaning of the word "racism" after being contacted by a Missouri black woman, who claimed the current definition fell short of including the systematic oppression of people of colour, according to media reports.

"A revision to the entry for racism is now being drafted to be added to the dictionary soon, and we are also planning to revise the entries of other words that are related to racism or have racial connotations," according to a statement of the 189-year-old dictionary shared by Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, on her Facebook.

Mitchum, 22, emailed the dictionary last month, following the death of African American George Floyd in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers, Xinhua news agency reported.

"I kept having to tell them that definition is not representative of what is actually happening in the world," Mitchum told CNN. "The way that racism occurs in real life is not just prejudice, it's the systemic racism that is happening for a lot of black Americans."

Merriam-Webster's first definition of racism is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race."

"It's not just disliking someone because of their race," Mitchum wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. "This current fight we are in is evidence of that, lives are at stake because of the systems of oppression that go hand-in-hand with racism."

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