Gold Prices Ease after Thursday’s Gains; Silver Prices also Slip

Gold prices eased in trading today following Thursday’s gains as the dollar strengthened against the euro. Silver prices are also lower in early trading today.

Gold has been rangebound in last few days. Analysts say that the precious metal has become dominated by short-term investors, who are buying and selling on relatively small price moves. Physical demand for gold has been weak, and this is one reason why the precious metal is struggling to build on gains, according to analysts.

Speaking to Reuters, Citigroup analyst David Wilson said that given the collapse of the Indian rupee, gold prices in India are still close to record highs, which is killing the jewelry market at the moment. Wilsons said that physical investor demand, when you look at ETFs is not positive, so you would need speculative demand to be making up the difference, and it is not, and that is related to the issue of growing skepticism over whether there will be U.S. QE.

Spot gold prices slipped 0.1% to $1,579.70 an ounce in trading today. Gold futures for delivery in August on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange were down $0.80 to $1,579.60 an ounce, at last check.

Silver prices are also lower today. At last check, spot silver was trading 0.6% lower at $27.05 an ounce.

In pre-market trading in New York, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.98%, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was down 1.88%, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was up 2.27%.