Stock Market Watch

Gold Prices Steady; Silver Prices Rise Sharply

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Gold prices held steady while the dollar edged higher on Monday as investors remained in side-lines ahead of the closely watched non-farm payrolls data release. Silver prices, meanwhile, rose sharply in trading on Monday.

December gold futures edged up 0.1% to settle at $1,315.80 at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD) inched up 0.09% to $126.96 an ounce, at last check.

The Labor Department’s September non-farm payrolls data, which was due on October 4 but delayed due to the shutdown, is expected to be released on Tuesday. If the job numbers show significant improvement then it would revive the debate over whether the Federal Reserve will or will not taper its multi-billion dollar asset purchase program.

Economists are anticipating 180,000 net payroll additions in September.

The dollar Index, which slumped to its eight and half month low in the preceding week, rebounded on Monday amid speculation that solid non-farm payrolls data could encourage the Fed to scale down its economic stimulating measures.

Last week, gold prices rallied about 4%, clocking best weekly performance in two months as investors believed that the Fed might extend its quantitative easing in order to support the economy, which was hit hard by the near-three weeks of shutdown. However, on Monday the enthusiasm fizzled.

“Investment interest in gold is rather low. Everything we’ve seen has been more short-covering than anything else… People are also not properly incentivised to turn to gold with long-term buying intentions,” said Tobias Merath, an analyst at Credit Suisse analyst, according to Reuters.

“At some point the Fed will have to start tapering, there is also a consensus view that over three, four, five years bond yields will most likely be higher, and right now inflation rates are very low and show no sign of picking up,” added Merath.

Silver futures were last up 1.56% to $22.25 an ounce.

In late trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) was up 1.42%, and the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) was up 2.85%.








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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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