Stock Market Watch

Gold and Silver Prices Down, Fed’s Minutes Eyed

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Gold prices edged lower during Asian trading hours on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar gained traction against a basket of major traded currencies, making dollar-dominated commodities expensive for international dealers. Silver prices also edged lower in early trading on Wednesday.

At last check, gold futures for December delivery fell 0.69% to $1,363.10 an ounce while spot gold edged down 0.49% to $1,364.00 an ounce.

In addition, the wait and watch policy adopted by bullion investors also weighed on the metal’s demand. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its minutes from its latest open market committee meeting (FOMC held July 30-31) on Wednesday and market participants are curious to know policymakers’ stance with regard to ongoing quantitative easing.

Fear over early tapering of the quantitative easing has knocked off nearly fifth of the bullion’s value in terms of dollar since the beginning of the year.

However, the metal’s prices have recovered lately thanks mainly to reversal in outflows of gold-backed ETFs and improved demand from China. This helped the metal to break several technical resistances which in turn resulted in short coverings.

Meanwhile, ANZ has upwardly revised its full-year price outlook for gold. The bank lifted their year-end price forecast to $1,380 from their initial projection of $1,300.

“The bounce in gold prices appears to be more sustainable – coinciding with a reversal of ETF outflows. We also see little downside to physical demand, with China continuing to buy strongly,” wrote ANZ’s analysts in a research note.

Silver futures lost 0.66% to $22.96 an ounce.

In pre-market trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.41%, and the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 0.43%.








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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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