Stock Market Watch

Gold and Silver Prices Edge Higher

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Gold futures edged higher during Asian trading hours on Friday even as talks over possible winding down of the Federal Reserve’s $85 billion worth monthly asset purchases program from September continued to weigh on the sentiment. Silver prices also edged higher in early trading on Friday.

At last check, gold futures for December delivery gained 0.29% to 1,374.80 an ounce while spot gold inched down 0.07% to $1,374.21 an ounce.

The minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting (FOMC) held on July 30-31, (released on Wednesday), revealed that officials were undecided over when exactly the bank should start the tapering of the quantitative easing.

However, the minutes provided enough clues that the Fed could start the tapering process in any of this year’s remaining three FOMCs.

Speculation is rife that the pullback could start from September, which will weigh on gold prices.

Higher interest rates will drive away investors from the bullion market as the metal is a non-interest bearing asset. The Fed will hold its next FOMC on September 17-18.

Investors will now keep a close eye on U.S. economic indicators as any significant improvement would press the Fed to scale down its economic stimulating measures from September.

Earlier on Thursday the job data (weekly jobless claims) release showed that the labor market was improving gradually despite a small rise in claims. The weekly jobless claims remained near six-year low level, last week. Manufacturing activities also expanded in August, according to Markit.  On Friday, the spotlight will be on the new home sales data.

Silver futures edged up 0.30% to $23.17 an ounce.

In pre-market trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.04%, and the ProShare Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 0.35%.

 








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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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