Palladium falls further on technical sell-off; gold firms

Palladium fell further on Thursday, a day after the metal posted its biggest drop in more than two years on technical selling and profit-booking.

Gold prices, meanwhile, edged higher as an inversion in the US Treasury yield curve fanned fears of an economic slowdown.

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Spot palladium was down 0.2 per cent at $1,441.49 per ounce at 1335 GMT, after hitting its lowest since Feb. 18 at $1,436 earlier in the session.

The metal fell 6.3 per cent on Wednesday, its biggest one-day per centage decline since January 2017. It hit a record peak of $1,620.52 last week, and has gained about 14 per cent so far this year.

Spot gold was 0.1 per cent higher at $1,310.48 per ounce.

US gold futures were down 0.1 per cent at $1,308.50 an ounce.

At the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, Anglo American Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani said palladium, whose price hit record high this month, was a "bubble".

Asian share markets were painted red on Thursday as recession concerns sent bond yields spiralling lower across the globe, overshadowing central bank attempts to calm frayed nerves.

The US economy faces "notable" risks and the Fed can take a wait-and-see approach to monetary policy, Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George said on Wednesday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May failed to sway hardline opponents of her European Union divorce deal on Wednesday with an offer to quit, but parliament's bid to agree an alternative fell short, leaving the Brexit process as deadlocked as ever.

China's industrial firms posted their worst slump in profits since late 2011 in the first two months of this year, data showed on Wednesday, as increasing strains on the economy in the face of slowing demand at home and abroad took a toll on businesses.

Euro zone money markets on Wednesday sharply scaled back expectations for a European Central Bank rate rise in 2020, after latest signals from ECB officials suggested they were in no hurry to tighten monetary policy.

South Africa's Sibanye-Stillwater will explore changing its primary listing in a bid to access more capital as it explores growth opportunities outside its home market, Chief Executive Neal Froneman said on Wednesday. (Reporting by Eileen Soreng and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)