By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Palladium roared to yet another record high on Thursday, closing in on the $3,000 an ounce target set by those long on the autocatalyst metal.
Gold, on the other hand, missed another opportunity to return to $1,800 pricing as it settled the latest session lower after soaring to a seven-week high of $1,798.25 on Wednesday.
Palladium futures on New York’s COMEX hit a record high of $2,894 an ounce, rewriting for the third time this week a string of peaks that began since April 13 after the metal that purifies gasoline-engine emissions got to above $2,700. Palladium futures however, settled the session lower, finishing down $32.70 at $2,842.90.
The spot price of platinum did not hit record highs on Thursday but got to just about $2 below the peak of $2,896.68 set during the previous day’s trade.
Palladium has more than doubled in value over the past two years ago due to a shortage of the commodity versus explosive growth in the automobile market, which was expanding consistently at least until the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
Technically as well, palladium is on one of its strongest legs ever for a rally, surging almost 25% from lows of under $2,295 during the week ended Feb. 26.
Barring a two-week break between late March and early April, it has virtually been an eight-week upward trajectory for palladium.
On a monthly basis, the autocatalyst metal has straight wins from February through April, with a gain of more than 12% for March alone.
Citigroup’s base case is for palladium to reach a historic high of $3,000 during the next three months.
The peak could even be $3,500 if disruptions at Norilskiy Nickel's Siberian mines — the largest palladium producing facility in the world — turn out to be worse than estimated, the bank said.
Benchmark gold futures on New York’s Comex settled at $1,782, down $11.10 or 0.6%.