Gold Prices End Marginally Higher, Posts Weekly Losses
Gold prices settled marginally higher on Friday and posted weekly losses after investors closed safe haven bets in the backdrop of tepid economic indicators from the U.S. and worsening macroeconomic environment in the euro zone while firmer dollar and uncertainty as to how the White House and Congress will reconcile over issue concerning the spending cuts also capped gains.
U.S. gold futures for December delivery inched 0.1% or 90 cents higher to close at $1,714.70 an ounce while spot gold slipped 0.2% to settle at $1,712.60 an ounce.
The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 0.12% lower at $165.88
The metal has now ended lower for five out of the last six weeks.
‘Fiscal cliff’, which refers to series of massive spending cuts and increase in taxes estimated at $600 billion, could push the U.S. economy back into recession lest lawmakers in Washington fail to find a way out for reducing fiscal deficit by the end of December.
The White House and Congress initiated first rounds of negotiations on Friday; and, although the congressional leaders said that talks were “constructive”, investors are expected to remain in sidelines unless some tangible results are seen developing through negotiations.
In a note to investors, Ben Traynor, chief economist at BullionVault wrote, “I’d say the biggest influence on the gold price right now is the ongoing uncertainty over the so-called fiscal cliff.”
However, equities received some boost on Friday after the congressional leaders vowed to find a middle ground during talks so that the looming threat of ‘fiscal cliff’ is averted. Earlier on Friday, (just ahead of the opening of the Wall Street, sentiment turned upbeat after a report carried in the Wall Street Journal said that the Whitehouse Officials were in final rounds of internal discussions that were aimed at planning a separate package, entailing smaller spending cuts and lower tax increases, which in turn would prevent the sequester (a small portion of ‘fiscal cliff’). In case, sequester comes into effect from 2013, spending cuts and tax increases worth $100 billion will be incorporated.
Firmer dollar has also weighed on gold prices lately. While period of uncertainty, in general, bolsters metal’s safe haven appeal, investors are rather seeking safety in U.S, dollars this time as oppose to last year when debt crisis in the euro zone and debt ceiling issue in the U.S resulted a rally in bullion market. The metal touched its historical high of $1920.30 an ounce in September, last year.
The ICE Dollar Index, a gauge on U.S. unit’s performance against a basket of six major traded currencies, rose to 81.264 on Friday from 81.039 in late night North American trading on Thursday.
Weakness in euro zone economy and vulnerability in the U.S. economy has also dented metal’s inflation-hedge allure. Earlier this week, a data release from the euro zone showed that the 17 nation monetary union’s economy slumped into recession between July-September while in the U.S. initial jobless claims unexpectedly climbed to 18 months high. The Industrial production showed contraction on October, although it was mainly attributed to hurricane Sandy. The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke also played down the recent improvement in housing market data and gave a negative outlook.
Physical Demand Lower in 2011
Besides a research report published by trade group, World Gold Council showed that the demand for gold plunged 11 percent in the current year from the last year as two of the biggest gold consumers, China and India imported less gold owing to lackluster demand.
In some other precious metal markets, silver lost 1.1 % to settle at $32.22 an ounce. Platinum edged down 0.9% to close at $1,555.74 an ounce while palladium fell 0.8% to end the day at $623.97 an ounce.
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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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