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It was a tough end of the week for both the gold and silver prices on Friday, as both were down substantially amidst news of a trade deal between the United States and China.

Aside from Trump and other officials like Howard Lutnick saying that a deal was signed, so far there seems to be little information available yet about the actual details. And some of the coverage would suggest that this isn't quite officially over the finish line just yet.

I'm guessing there will be more clarity around the details in coming days, but here's one recap of the news, that was enough to help send both gold and silver lower on Friday.

Here’s what the Chinese commerce minister is saying:

China's commerce ministry said on Friday the two countries have confirmed details on the framework of implementing the Geneva trade talks consensus.

It said China will approve export applications of controlled items in accordance with the law. It did not mention rare earths.

Although while there appeared to be progress on a trade deal with China, Trump also just ended trade talks with Canada.

In the end, the gold futures were down $62 to $3,286.

Silver didn’t fare much better and was down 76 cents to $35.83.

The latest COT report was out, and as expected, there was short-covering by the banks over the past reporting week on the selloff.

Lastly, you may have seen earlier this week how officials in Italy and Germany are being pressed to bring their gold back from the U.S.

Luke raises a great point about the concern in the gold market following the sanctions on Russia 3 years ago. We’ve seen this reflected in the central bank gold purchases, and now we’re seeing additional repatriation requests. And keep in mind, this is ahead of the next BRICS Summit in less than 2 weeks.

And in case you’ve been wondering what to expect at this year’s summit, my dear colleague Vince Lanci talked more about that in his morning broadcast today.

We’ll also have more coverage of the BRICS summit over the next 2 weeks, and while there seems to be a lot less attention focused on this year’s affair, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some significant takeaways.

Which we’ll look forward to discussing in the coming weeks. Although until then, I do just hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

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