Gold Prices Settle Marginally Higher; Silver Prices Edge Lower
Gold prices ended marginally higher in trading on Monday as investors remained focused fiscal cliff negotiations. Silver prices, meanwhile, edged lower on Monday.
Gold prices initially gained on Monday amid hopes that the Bank of Japan would implement additional monetary easing measures after Japan’s new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, called for further measures to boost economic growth. However, gold shed initial gains as hopes that lawmakers will reach a deficit reduction deal before the year-end deadline and avert the fiscal cliff hurt the precious metal’s inflation-hedge appeal.
After weeks of negotiations there seems to be finally some progress on the fiscal cliff issue. House Speaker John Boehner over the weekend indicated that Republicans are ready to raise taxes on wealthy Americans. With indications that Republicans are ready to compromise on the tax issue, it is likely that a deficit reduction deal will be reached before the end of this year.
At last check on Monday, spot gold was unchanged at $1,696 an ounce. Gold futures for delivery in February on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled $1.20 higher at $1,698.20 an ounce.
Spot silver fell below its 100-moving average for the first time since mid-August. At last check, spot silver was trading around $32 an ounce.
In late trading on Monday, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was down 0.03% to $31.16, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 0.04% to $49.90, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) was down 0.04% to $44.88.
Platinum and palladium also edged lower on Monday. At last check, spot platinum was trading 0.6% lower at $1,605 an ounce, while spot palladium was trading 0.6% lower at $697 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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