After weeks of rapid price growth, the price of Palladium has finally overtaken that of Gold for the first time in the precious metal’s history.
Palladium is currently at 1 106 € per ounce, while gold is at 1 090.69 €. Palladium edged past gold yesterday evening at around 5pm by a matter of pence, but steadily increased its gains into the night.
Palladium peaked at 1 109.17 € per ounce at midday after hitting a new high of 1 086.44 € per ounce yesterday evening. The losses after a peak have repeatedly been 10-15 € per ounce regression, and this trend of rapid price rises is making for a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ look to the Palladium price chart, as can be seen below:
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The overtaking of gold is itself quite remarkable given it has happened at a time when US stock market fragility and Brexit uncertainty are driving gold demand and prices up, with gold at 1 090 € per ounce presently. Both the UK and the US are fearful of recessions as a result of trade hindrances, albeit for different reasons, and so Gold has once again stepped up as a popular choice of safe-haven asset.
Palladium’s demand is different, with a global shortage of the precious metal and high demand for use in automotive manufacturing. Platinum is readily available and cheap at the moment, so perhaps it won’t be too long before we see manufacturers change from one metal to another, but given the limited global car demand at the moment the cost involved in changing metals may be greater than the vehicle demand can compensate, meaning palladium stays the favoured industrial metal and the prices keep on going up until they reach an unsustainable point.
