Commodities: Gold, silver northbound on investor dash to safety

Gold and silver futures again trended higher as spooked investors resumed their rush to perceived safe-haven assets against a falling pound and now-chronic Brexit fears.

This continued an all-metals rally seen since the start of July, this in part reflecting more fund money entering the commodity asset class on expectations of looser monetary policy from global central banks.

At 15:22 BST, Comex-traded gold was up 0.54% to $1366 an ounce, with silver adding 0.49% to $20.01 an ounce. However, industrial-favourite copper fell 1.72% to $214.6 a pound.

London Metals Exchange-traded three-month copper, zinc and tin were all softer, but aluminium bucked the trend with a mild rise.

"We have raised our price forecasts for aluminium, zinc, gold, silver and platinum this week," wrote UniCredit in its metal bulletin.

"There are plenty of headwinds though and it is likely to be a volatile summer," it said, noting central banks were again dovish while they waited to see what problems Brexit added to the market.

"Easier monetary policy should help to extend metal price rallies," UniCredit said.

Against this backcloth, agricultural futures were predominantly lower.

In grains, Chicago Board of Trade corn lost 2.49% to $342.00 a bushel, while wheat ebbed 1.96% to $425.00 a bushel.

Softs were mostly lower, too. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) quoted cocoa and cotton No.2 fared better, down 0.16% to $3060/MT and down 0.43% to $64.93 a pound respectively.

ICE-traded Coffee 'C' was down 2.99% to $141.2 a pound. Meantime, live cattle rose 0.04% to $113.7 a pound.

In energy, Nymex-quoted West Texas Intermediate dipped 0.11% to $46.55 a barrel, while ICE-traded Brent slipped 0.27% to $47.83 a barrel.