News - Prospector's Diary

Just about everything else fell this week but gold reclaimed its star status with a rise of $US50 an ounce after a promise from the US central bank that there will be no increase in official interest rates for at least another two years. The problem with the no-rate increase comments from the Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell is that while they might be good for gold, they reflect a downbeat outlook for US and global growth.

The first whiff of a sustainable economic recovery wafted across the Australian economy this week, boosting banks and miners of industrial metals while rubbing some of the gloss off gold stocks. Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, painted a rosy picture about the outlook when addressing a Senate committee yesterday with his words forming the basis for the all ordinaries index cracking the 6000-point market for the first time since early March.

Corporate moves, including takeovers and fund raising, took the limelight this week as the destabilising effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to hit most commodity markets, except gold. Chalice led the fund-raising, attracting $30 million in fresh capital to accelerate work at its promising Julimar palladium and nickel discovery near Perth. Such is the interest in Julimar and palladium that Chalice could have raised more than double what it accepted with applications for the new shares, priced at $1.05, totalling $75 million.