By Barani Krishnan
Investing.com - Platinum reasserted itself on Thursday as an asset to watch in the precious metals space as the auto-catalyst metal rallied to six-year highs before settling flat on the day.
Gold also lost a winning streak in place since Thursday, falling nearly 1% to snap a four-day rally that had bolstered its prices by more than 3%.
Benchmark platinum futures for March delivery on New York’s Comex settled up just 10 cents at $1,247 an ounce after hitting a 2015 high of $1,281.10.
Platinum serves as an emissions purifier in diesel cars just like palladium, which is used as a catalyst for gasoline engines. Platinum’s rally on Thursday came after specialist metals refiner Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) projected a third consecutive annual supply deficit for the commodity in 2021.
“The market has been looking beyond the pandemic - to a recovery in the auto sector, which will eventually happen,” StoneX analyst Rhona O’Connell was quoted as saying, with reference to the platinum.
Citi Research said platinum, also a key ingredient in fuel cells, could rise to $1,300 by the year-end.
Gold futures for April delivery on Comex settled down $15.90, or 0.9%, at $1,826.70. Since its tumble to 10-week lows beneath $1,785 on Feb. 4, gold has rebounded more than 3% over the past four sessions, hitting a one-week high of 1,856.45 on Wednesday.
Thursday’s slide in gold came after the Dollar Index snapped a four-day decline that had coincided with the gold rally. Gold and the dollar are rival assets that typically move in opposite directions.