Gold Prices Steady; Silver Prices Edge Lower

By / / Business News


Gold prices steadied on Wednesday after four days of successive gains, as intensifying debt crisis in the euro-zone undermined the euro, offsetting any potential safe haven demand for the metal. Silver prices, meanwhile, are lower in trading today.

While spot gold was last down 0.1 percent on the day at $1,658.01 an ounce, U.S. June futures edged lower 0.3 percent at $1,655.60 an ounce.


Even though euro gained on Wednesday, it has come under intense pressure from last week as the debt crisis resurfaced again with Spain at the centre stage this time where head of the central bank said that bank will need more infusion of capital if the economy continues to slide down.

Pressure on the euro arising out of the debt crisis could translate into pressure on the gold price as euro-based investors will seek higher dollar returns from their bullion positions.

Gold in euros was last losing 0.5 percent at 1,261.62 euros an ounce, having earlier touched two-week highs the previous day above 1,271.00 euros.

Commenting on the gold prices over the near term, Walter de Wet, analyst at Standard Nank said to Reutres, “We think gold will be in a range of $1,600 to around $1,690 or $1,700, which is a fairly wide range. Mr. Wet also added that “it will be difficult for gold to break out of that range”.

With U.S equities dropping amid economic uncertainty, safe haven instruments like gold, the dollar and U.S. government debt have benefited from investors, with gold rallying more than 1 percent and U.S. Treasuries yields dropping 4-week lows in the previous session.

Meanwhile, prospects of further monetary easing from fed along with inflation spike in consumer prices in China has also supported the sentiment in gold, regarded as a hedge against rising prices.

In some other metal markets, Silver edged lower 0.5 percent to $31.61 an ounce at last check. Platinum and its sister metal palladium also eased, with platinum dropping 0.1 percent at $1,591.24 an ounce and palladium down 0.4 percent at $634.22 an ounce.

In pre-market trading in New York, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) is down 0.36% to $30.70, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) is currently down 0.50% to $52.06, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) is currently up 0.28% to $10.93.

 

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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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