Stock Market Watch

Gold Prices Little Changed; Silver Prices Edge Lower

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Gold prices stood flat amid thin trading as Fed watchers expect that the FOMC will offer lots of information today even as any action appears extremely unlikely. Meanwhile, silver prices have edged lower in mid-day trading.

Earlier, thanks to better than expected corporate earnings and de-escalation of sovereign debt crises, the risk appetite among investors jacked up, pushing up the gold prices as well. However, today the movement in the bullion market is muted right from the start.


While Spot gold was trading marginally lower at 0.2 percent at $1,637.90, U.S. gold futures for June delivery also edged lower $5.30 an ounce at $1,638.50.

Although the Federal Reserve is likely to keep the interest rates at record low levels, market participants will be more interested to hear Ben Bernanke’s addressing the news conference post FOMC. It is expected that policy statement will provide further clues on whether the fed will go for another round of quantitative easing or not.

In February, gold touched $1,790 an ounce level as expectations of monetary easing pushed up the metal’s prices; however, with no bond buying signals from the fed, gold retreated in March and April, hovering around between $1,610 and $1640 an ounce.

According to BNP Paribas analyst Anne-Laure Tremblay, “The Federal Open Market Committee announcement could be the trigger that takes gold away from its trading range”.

Commenting over possible monetary easing and its impact on gold’s prices, Tremblay also said to Reuters, “Any mention of the need for further monetary accommodation would of course be positive for the precious metal. On the other hand, a focus on a higher inflation and employment forecast, rather than on current risks to economic growth, could see gold correct lower.”

Among some other precious metal market news, Silver, lost 0.2 percent to $30.73 an ounce, while spot palladium stood nearly flat at $663.72 an ounce. Platinum gained 0.7%, trading at $ 1, 549 an ounce.

The iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) is currently trading 2.24% lower at $29.26, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) is currently trading 4.76% lower at $46.83, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) is currently trading 4.82% higher at $11.97.

 

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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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