Stock Market Watch

Gold Futures Almost Flat, Silver Slips

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Gold futures remained almost flat on Monday as investors were averse to take fresh positions ahead of the Silver prices, meanwhile, fell in trading on Monday.

Market participants expect the Fed to provide clear indication on exactly when and at what pace it could start scaling down of $85 billion worth bond purchase program or quantitative easing (QE3).

At last check, gold futures for December delivery was almost unchanged at $1,386.60 an ounce while spot gold edged down 0.32% to $1,386.45 an ounce. In late trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) was down 0.16% to $133.93.

Silver futures fell 0.74% to $23.71 an ounce.

Earlier on Friday, bullion prices jumped more than 1.50% as weaker-than-expected non-farm payrolls data fanned speculation that the tapering of QE might be delayed.

However, the opinion is divided. While BNP Paribas believes the tapering process to start from December, Tobias Merath of Credit Suisse maintains that economic stimulating measures will be pulled back eventually.

Comments made by two Fed officials over the weekend suggest that the bank is on course of winding down its asset purchases by September.

“It (the decision on tapering) can still go either way, and players will choose to play it safe without committing to fresh longs until then,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital, according to Reuters.

Expectations that the Fed will start narrowing down its bond purchase program from the second half of 2013 has prompted investors to cut positions on the metal, knocking of about 17% to date since the beginning 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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