Gold Prices Falls below $1,600 Level as Spotlight Shifts to ECB, Silver Prices also Slip

Gold prices continued to extend their losses on Wednesday on falling prospects of additional monetary easing from the Silver prices also slipped in early trading on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the spotlight has shifted back to the European Central Bank (ECB). A data released on Tuesday showed that euro zone’s GDP in the second quarter of the year contracted by 0.2%, with Germany and Netherlands only the exception-whose economies grew by 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively while France’s GDP growth was flat for a third straight quarter.

Expectations are growing that monetary union’s central bank might now quickly swing into action by giving some sort of monetary easing, injecting some life in stagnating economy. Earlier during its meeting at Brussels, the ECB had hinted at resuming bond buying program.

On Tuesday, gold prices tumbled 1% moment after the release of retail sales data.  Investors preferred to cut short their long bets, fearing that marked improvement in consumer spending could either result in the fed pushing back its monetary easing plans or completely abandoning them for rest of the year.

On Wednesday, gold futures edged lower 0.32% from its previous close to trade at $1,595.20 an ounce.

Gold losses its allure as an inflation-hedge, whenever central banks avoid providing monetary easing such as printing more notes or bond buying programs.

“The good news for economy is bad news for gold,” said Yuichi Ikemizu, head of commodity trading, Japan, Standard Bank, while speaking to Reuters.

Yuichi also added that ongoing ambiguity on monetary policy direction will keep interest in trading gold subdued with gold struggling to move out from its existing range until August or even September.

A data provided by Reuters showed that holdings of SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD), world’s biggest gold backed exchange traded fund, stood unchanged at 1,258.148 tons, on Tuesday, which is highest since June but 2.7% lower than this year’s high in February.

Silver futures also slipped 0.64%, to $27.585 an ounce.

In pre-market trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.78%, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was down 1.45%, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was up 1.28%.

More Posts by this author

• Perrigo – PRGO – Reports Record Fourth Quarter
• Stocks Turn Positive in Mid-Day Trading; All Three Major Indexes Near Session Highs
• Xueda Education Group – XUE – Strong double-digit growth and delivered solid performance
• IBM to acquire Texas Memory Systems
• The Bancorp (TBBK) and Transact Network Limited – To Expand Bancorp’s Payment Solutions Presence into Europe
• U.S. Stocks Mixed as Investors Digest Slightly Weaker Economic Indicators
• Gold Prices Inch Lower as Ambiguity over Fed’s Monetary Easing Persists, Silver Prices also Slip

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.