The premium of gold to platinum has moved to its largest level on record, at over $250/oz, as the metal fails to keep up with large gains made by gold this year.
Whereas gold has added over $50/oz in 2016 to date on safe haven buying at over $1,100/oz this week, soft China data, persistent yuan depreciation and weak stock markets have all helped platinum lose around the same amount this year, to $845/oz as of 1100 GMT Tuesday.
2016 has been even worse for palladium, down around 15% year to date, trading around $450/oz Tuesday morning, its lowest level in over five years, as concerns over China continue to dominate prices for industrial and precious group metals.
Palladium's discount to gold is the largest since 2013, at $650/oz.
"An added bearish factor for palladium has been investor concerns over the impact of rising interest rates on auto sales in the US, a key gasoline market," said Citigroup Tuesday.
Citi quotes industry report data that around 87% of new cars in the US were bought via financing in the third quarter of 2015, "pointing to a sizeable interest rate exposure," the US bank said.
Whilst prices are not responding to robust Chinese car sales figures, which achieved record levels in December and took total sales for 2015 to 21.11 million cars, 7.1% higher year on year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
"Dynamism has thus abated slightly as compared with the previous year," said Commerzbank in a note Tuesday as CAAM expects car sales in 2016 to climb by 7.8% to 22.76 million.
Palladium and platinum are both used in catalytic converters in the auto industry.
The London Bullion Market Association Platinum Price settled at $853/oz Monday, down $21/oz on Friday's close.
The LBMA Palladium Price settled at $485/oz Monday afternoon, down $20/oz on Friday's close.
The LBMA Gold Price settled at $1,094.85/oz Tuesday morning, down $5.90/oz on Monday's close.
