Gold Futures Inch Lower

Gold prices slipped on truncated trading day as firmer dollar and growing fears of budget cuts in the backdrop of political brinkmanship in Washington kept investors in sidelines.

Gold futures for February delivery lost 60 cents an ounce to close at $1,659.50 while spot gold gained $1.19 to end at $1,658.71 an ounce.

The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 0.18% higher at $160.62.

The contract earlier managed to reach as high as $1,666.50 an ounce but quickly retreated after the greenback climbed against major traded currencies, making dollar-dominated commodities expensive for traders dealing in currencies other than the U.S. unit.

The ICE dollar Index, a gauge on U.S. dollar’s performance against a basket of six major traded currencies, edged up to 79.662 on Monday from 79.575, in late night North American trading on Friday.

As congressional talks over the issue of spending cuts and tax hikes remained on hold as lawmakers took a break for Christmas, any quick-fix solution or compromise before the yearend deadline once President Obama and house speaker John Boehner returns at the Capitol, looks highly improbable.

Analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman presume that the U.S. economy would fall off the fiscal cliff and then a “deal will be stitched up from there”.

Some analysts are hopleful, though.

“My view is that the fiscal cliff will be avoided at the last minute. If the fiscal cliff is avoided, that should be positive for risk assets including gold. As the market had been pricing in that the fiscal cliff might be a reality, there might be a sense of relief,” said Peter Fertig, analyst with Quantitative Commodity Research.

Fiscal cliff, which is referred to as series of spending cuts and tax hikes, threatens to drag the U.S. economy into recession lest lawmakers fail in finding a solution on how to trim nation’s fiscal imbalance.

Although the yellow metal, in general tends to gain in the period of economic uncertainty as investors look for safe-haven bets, many analysts argue that economic slowdown arising out of budget cuts will impact gold prices due to slump in broader-asset-classes. Gold, despite being regarded as safe haven instrument has tended to track riskier assets such as equities, crude oil markets, lately.

According to Commodity Futures Trading Commission/ Reuters, money managers and hedge funds have cut their net long positions to its lowest in level in the week of December 18, a lowest level since the end of August.  Inflation hedge bids not only dried-out due to rising fears of economic slowdown but also due to the fact that the current quarter is turning out to be a dismal one for gold, slumping nearly 7 percent.

However, the metal is still up about 5 percent in 2012 and on course to record twelfth consecutive year gains, thanks to a period of ultra low interest rates and other economic stimulating measures adopted by global central banks to stimulate stagnating global economy.

Moving to some other precious metal markets, sliver slipped 0.4 percent to settle at $29.88 an ounce. In platinum group of metals, platinum fell 0.4 percent to end the day at $1,533.18 an ounce while palladium gained 0.8 percent to $685.70 an ounce.

Meanwhile, analysts at BNP Paribas raised their outlook for precious metals such as platinum and palladium, citing better economic environment in 2013.

In a research report, the bank said, “We have a positive view of precious metals prices in the first half of 2013 on the basis of further money accommodation and a rebound in economic growth. Given its strong fundamentals, we believe that palladium has the most upside potential over the next two years.”

More Posts by this author

• Consumer Confidence Shaken by Concerns over Looming “Fiscal Cliff”
• Stocks Extend Loses in Mid-Day Trading
• Ancestry.com – ACOM – Stockholder Approval of Acquisition by Permira
• Toyota Motor – TM – Agreement to resolve economic loss litigation in the U.S.
• WSP Holdings Limited – WH – To tap into new international markets
• MVC Capital – MVC – Financial results for the fourth quarter and year
• Robbins & Myers – RBN – Shareholders Approve Merger with National Oilwell Varco

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.