Palladium drops below $1,800/oz mark

Palladium futures fell on Tuesday, to retreat below the $1800 an ounce mark hit yesterday amid news about a close phase one trade deal between the US and China.

Several US officials, led by President Trump, said they were optimistic about an important trade phase, while one official said it would likely happen by the end of this year.

China also stressed that it is cooperating with the US to resolve the major hurdles in their trade file, but Beijing believes negotiations for the phase two will not happen before the next US presidential election in 2020.

Otherwise, the dollar index held against a basket of currencies at 98.3 points as of 14:29 GMT, and and hit an intraday high of 98.3 and a low of 98.2.

Palladium December's futures fell 0.3% to $1,765.8 an ounce as of 14:30 GMT, with a high of $1,791.9 and a low of $1,752.