News
Thursday, June 04, 2026
What’s happening: Gold prices traded higher this morning as investors responded to the latest developments related to the Middle East conflict.
What happened: The yellow metal rose as Israel and Lebanon agreed to a conditional ceasefire.
Weakness in the US dollar lent further support to gold prices during the session.
Why it matters: On Monday, Israel agreed to a partial ceasefire in exchange for the Iran-backed Hezbollah group also stopping its offensive.
The US said on Wednesday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a complete ceasefire, following negotiations in Washington. The US State Department issued a statement saying that the two sides had agreed to Washington guiding the “creation of pilot zones in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors.”
“All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments,” the statement further said.
Meanwhile the US and Iran agreed a rough framework to extend their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Weakness in the US dollar provided a further boost to gold prices, as a softer greenback makes metals cheaper for foreign currency holders. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance versus a basket of major peers, fell 0.07% to 99.46 this morning.
Markets buying the dip following the 2% decline in gold prices this week also lent support to the bullion.
Spot price for gold rose 0.83% to $4471.61 an ounce this morning.
In other metals trading, spot price for silver surged 0.88% to $73.317 an ounce and platinum prices rose 0.33% to $1,880.70.
What to watch: Investors will continue monitoring developments around the Middle East conflict.
Interest rate announcements by the Bank of Canada and the European Central Bank next week will also remain in focus.
Context: US stock indices fell on Wednesday on profit taking and disappointing quarterly releases by some big companies.
Details: The three major US stock indices pulled back from record highs on Wednesday. Investors took profit after US equities climbed for most part of this earnings season.
Disappointing results from big companies also triggered the selling pressure. Broadcom’s stock fell almost 14% in extended trading on Wednesday, after the company reported a revenue miss for its fiscal second quarter.
CrowdStrike’s stock closed more than 21% lower on the company’s lacklustre guidance. Shares of IBM, Salesforce and KKR also declined sharply during Wednesday’s session.
On the economic data front, the ISM Services PMI rose to 54.5 in May, from 53.6 in April. The figure also came above market estimates of 53.8 and represented the strongest expansion in the services sector in three months.
The Dow Jones index fell 1.21% to close at 50,687.07 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 closed down 0.74% at 7,553.68, while the Nasdaq 100 lost 0.89% to settle at 26,853.98.
What to watch: Investors will monitor earnings releases by Docusign and Lululemon Athletica today.
Data on initial jobless claims and continuing jobless claims from the US (1630 UAE Time) will be released today. Initial jobless claims, which rose by 5,000 to 215,000 in the third week of May, is expected to decline to 213,000 in the latest week. Continuing jobless claims, which increased to 1,786,000 in the week ending May 16 from 1,771,000 in the previous week, is expected to decline to 1,780,000 in the latest week.
Other Markets: European trading indices closed lower on Wednesday, with the STOXX Europe 600 Index, DAX 40, CAC 40 and FTSE 100 down by 0.66%, 1.31%, 0.71% and 0.40%, respectively.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that there is a “real” risk of the Russia-Ukraine war escalating, with Kyiv striking deep inside Russian territory. The news sent the USD/RUB pair higher in forex trading this morning.
Italy’s new passenger car registration growth decelerated to 7.6% year-on-year in May, from 11.6% in April, which exerted pressure on the EUR/USD forex pair.
Brazil’s trade surplus widened to $7.82 billion in May. The figure coming in higher than market expectations of $7.65 billion sent the USD/BRL pair lower in forex trading this morning.
South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves contracted to $427.0 billion in May, from the previous month’s $427.9 billion, lending support to the USD/KRW forex pair.
Japanese investors sold foreign bonds worth a net of ¥184.8 billion in the week ending May 30, after buying a net of ¥12.9 billion in the previous week, which sent USD/JPY pair higher in forex trading this morning.
UK’s new car sales (1200 UAE Time) and S&P Global Construction PMI (1230 UAE Time), Eurozone’s retail sales (1300 UAE Time), Turkey’s foreign exchange reserves (1530 UAE Time) as well as Mexico’s gross fixed investment (1600 UAE Time).