8th December 2017

 Precious metals continued to erode on Thursday, with gold hitting a four-month low and finishing below $1250, while silver pulled further away from the $16 mark, ending at $15.74. The stronger dollar did not help; the greenback rose to a three-week high against the yen (now at 113), and gained against the Euro as well (1.1750), although sterling held its ground (at $1.3470) on reports of renewed momentum in the EU/UK talks over the Irish border. Reuters reports that Prime Minister May will be flying to Brussels with fresh proposals that are apparently now acceptable to her coalition partners. Meanwhile, in Germany, SPD leader Martin Schulz said he would ask his party members for support to start coalition talks with Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU. Outside of gold and silver, platinum also weakened, finishing well below the $900 mark, but platinum ended the day slightly higher and over $1000/ounce.