Gold Prices Settle Higher but Log 24% Quarterly Loss; Silver Prices Rally
Amid volatile trading, gold prices staged a slight comeback on Friday as rebalancing of portfolios ahead of the end of the last trading session of the month and quarter, and some short covering, supported the demand, on what has been one of the most dismal monthly and quarterly performances by the metal. Silver prices, meanwhile, rallied in trading on Friday.
Despite Friday’s gains, the metal has posted a loss of about 24% for the period extending from April to June, showed a data provided by Reuters.
The quarterly loss has been steepest since 1968.
Gold futures for August delivery gained 1% to settle at $1,223.70 an ounce while spot gold was last up 2.2% to $1,225.90 an ounce. In late trading, the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) ended the day 2.37% higher at $118.68.
Silver futures jumped 5.27% to $19.53 an ounce, at last check.
Commenting over gold’s mini-rally and prices fluctuation, Bill O’Neill, a partner at LOGIC Advisors, a commodities investment firm, said “There are some people covering shorts and some people taking losses as part of quarterly book-squaring to position for the next quarter.”
Earlier today, the metal extended losses from the preceding session. Traders said that the “stop loss” was triggered after the metal momentarily dipped below the key support level of $1,200 an ounce.
Bullion, which is regarded as a hedge against inflation, came under heavy pressure after the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke signaled at possible scaling down of the multi-billion bond purchase by the year-end, in case U.S. economic data, especially the labor market and housing market showed continued recovery.
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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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