Stock Market Watch

Gold Prices End Flat

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Gold prices mostly remained unchanged on Friday as investors waited for some cue from the market as this week turned out to be a mixed bag with strong earnings announcements amid downbeat U.S. economic data and resurfacing concerns over euro-zone debt financing . Market participants now keenly await next week’s Federal Reserve’s open market committee meeting, hoping central bank will possibly offer some hint on another round of quantitative easing.

While Spot gold fell slightly down to $1,641.79 an ounce, U.S. gold futures for June delivery edged higher $1.40 to settle at $1,642.80.


Despite holding within their narrowest weekly range in more than a year, the yellow metal lost 1% this week. What’s more surprising is; notwithstanding the U.S. dollar has been weaker this week, earnings have been better than expected and oil prices have rallied, the yellow metal has ended in a negative territory.

On Friday, the dollar weakened against major rivals as European equity markets gathered steam  after Germany’s Ifo Institute said its business-confidence gauge climbed up to 109.9 in April from 109.8 in March, surprising markets with better than anticipated numbers

The announcement strengthened the euro putting the pressure on the dollar. The ICE dollar index –a gauge of dollar’s performance against major traded currencies-stood at 79.270, off from the 79.589 seen late Thursday.

Traditionally, a weaker dollar is a positive for gold and other commodities as it makes them less expensive for the traders who hold other currencies.

The bullion market is struggling to find direction as buyers await the outcome of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. The meetings are expected to focus on tackling the euro-zone debt even as the U.S. Federal Reserve meets next week to decide on its monetary policy.

The metal has lost almost $150 an ounce since February as strings of positive economic data from U.S. curtailed hopes of monetary easing.

Weak physical demand for gold from Asia has also weighed on the metal. The demand from world’s biggest consumer –India has been surprisingly sluggish on time when Indians traditionally buy gold, celebrating Akshaya Tritya—a gold buying festival. Analysts blame high price and weaker rupee for the fall in demand. The Indian rupee fell to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in last three months.

Commenting over the stall in the bullion market, UBS-wrote in its note to investors “Physical demand is currently underwhelming — barely even blinking when prices dipped below $1640 yesterday — and this hardly offers any assurance that gold can easily find support on any further price drops”.

The note also said that “Appetite from India has fallen off from the strong level we took note of earlier in the week, keeping with the trend of strong days being followed shortly by a series of ordinary days;” “In the context of next week’s significant Akshaya Tritiya festival, this is somewhat worrying;” added UBS.

Moving onto some other precious metal markets, silver slid 0.22% at $31.65 an ounce after rising sharply on Thursday following a report from Thomson Reuters –GFMS which showed that silver sales for industrial applications, as well as for jewelry, coins, silverware and photography, should rise 3 to 5 percent this year.

The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 0.07% higher at $159.54.

Spot platinum climbed up to $1,576.24 an ounce, while palladium advanced 2.05 percent to $673.25 an ounce.

Gold was outperformed by both platinum and silver this week. Whereas one ounce of gold now buys 51.7 ounces of silver, down from 52.7 a week ago, one ounce of gold buys 1.04 ounces of platinum, compared to 1.05 ounces last Friday.

In its note, Commerbank said “Silver, platinum and palladium are currently under pressure due to their industrial characteristics, but should also increase again over the course of the year”.

 

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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