Stock Market Watch

Gold Prices Edge Lower, Silver Prices Down as well

by · Published · Updated


Gold prices edged lower during Asian trading hours on Monday with investors waiting for the Silver prices also slipped in early trading on Monday.

Rising speculation that the Fed could start to decelerate the pace of its multi-billion dollar asset purchase program in the backdrop of significantly improving U.S. macroeconomic environment, especially the labor market, is keeping investors in sidelines.

The Fed is scheduled to hold its open market committee meeting (FOMC) June 18-19.

At last check, U.S. gold futures for August delivery edged down 0.19% to $1,384.90 an ounce while spot gold was down 0.31% to $1,385.84 an ounce.

Gold prices have come under immense pressure after the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in April that the bank could start winding down its economic stimulating measures ($85 billion worth monthly bond purchase program or quantitative easing), should the U.S. housing and job market show signs of rebound. The metal touched its two year-low level of $1,321 an ounce in mid-April as edgy investors started to cut positions against safe-haven bets. Since then the metal has traded in a very tight range, struggling to break above $1,400 an ounce.

According to a survey conducted by Reuters, most economists expect the Fed to start tapering its bond purchase program by the year-end, while some believe it could be as early as September.

An environment of easy-money (rampant currency printing to buy government bonds) stokes inflationary concerns in the long run which in turn boost the demand for inflation-hedge assets. A slowdown in the Fed’s $85 billion monthly bond purchase program could undermine the yellow metal’s inflation-hedge appeal.

Silver futures fell 0.56% to $21.83 an ounce.

In pre-market trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 1.31%, and the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was down 2.02%.

 

 

 

More Posts by this author

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.

Tags:

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.

You may also like...