Also on the Comex, silver futures for September delivery tumbled 45.5 cents, or 2.36%, to trade at $18.86 a troy ounce during morning hours in London, while copper futures dipped 1.6 cents, or 0.74%, to $2.151 a pound.
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Gold for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped to a session low of $1,335.40 a troy ounce, a level not seen since August 9. Investors were looking ahead to the Fed’s meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for clues on timing for possible interest rate hikes.
Analysts said the week largely looks set to be quiet until a closely watched speech by Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen at the central bank’s summer retreat.
ANALYST’S TAKE: “Recent market price action suggests that nervousness about Fed policy may persist ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium”, Citigroup economists said in a report.
The Fed has been suggesting it could raise rates in 2016 since it tightened policy in December for the first time in almost a decade, but investors have doubts the central bank will follow through on that guidance.
Syngenta’s USA -listed shares (SYT.N) jumped 11.3 percent after a US national security panel cleared ChemChina’s $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group. Brent crude futures were trading at $49.94 per barrel at 0712 GMT, down $1.56, or 3.07 percent. The state-owned company, also known as ChemChina, said the $43 billion acquisition still requires approval from anti-trust and other regulators in the United States and other countries. European stocks fell 0.11 percent, having received a temporary boost in early trading by Syngenta after its proposed takeover by ChemChina was approved by US regulators.
“The DXY US dollar index already seemed to be looking ahead for some slightly more upbeat language on the USA economy coming out this week as it rallied 0.4 percent on Friday”, he said.
DRUGMAKER MERGER: Cancer drug maker Medivation jumped $13.24, or 20 percent, to $80.40 after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it would buy the company for $14 billion, or $81.50 a share. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3 percent to 22,997.91 and Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.9 percent to 2,017.94. The euro turned slightly negative, losing.04 percent against the dollar at $1.1305.
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Mr Fisher also explained the many obstacles that the U.S. have had to contend with in the past 2 years, which have included, the confusions stemming from China’s exchange rate policy, the Greek debt crisis, spates of wild volatility in the markets, the 20% rise of the trade-weighted dollar, the outcome of United Kingdom referendum and the disappointing release figure seen in the job growth for May 2016.
