Gold made modest gains on Thursday morning against a slightly weaker dollar and contradictory messages emerging from Greece on the state of bailout negotiations.
The spot gold price was last at $1,189.90/1,190.70 per ounce, up $2.50 on Wednesday’s close and having traded within an intraday range of around $6 so far.
Silver was last five cents higher at $16.70/16.75 per ounce, while palladium was up $5 at $785/790 and platinum was $10 stronger at $1,121/1,131.
In Europe, the FTSE and the Dax both ended lower on Wednesday on concerns that Greece remains some way from a bailout deal – German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble and IMF chief Christine Lagarde both said that more work needs to be done after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared publicly that Greece is on the “final stretch” to secure the aid it needs,
Greece must repay four loans to the International Monetary Fund in June totalling 1.6 billion euros.
“News out of Greece that the two sides are closing in on a deal helped weaken the greenback against the euro but we still do not know for sure which way the wind is blowing on these talks, since the Greek assessment of things is far more encouraging than the European one,” INTL FCStone’s Ed Meir said in a note.
In equities, the Dax, CAC 40 and FTSE 100 chalked up further losses on Thursday morning after ending lower on Wednesday – they were last down between 0.2 and 0.7 percent, reflecting the lack of progress in the Greek talks.
Comparatively, the Dow Jones finished more than 120 points higher on Wednesday, rebounding from Tuesday’s weakness, on hopes that a ‘Grexit’ can be avoided.
With Thursday’s calendar looking fairly quiet, despite the usual weekly unemployment claims figure out of the US, the market will be looking ahead to the second revision to US first-quarter GDP on Friday.
“[This] is now expected to have contracted by 0.7 percent [from growth of 0.2 percent previously],” Meir said. “The report carries with it the potential of impacting the credit and currency markets first, extending its reach to gold as well.”
A weaker dollar is providing upward impetus for precious metal – the market remains almost exclusively currency-driven. The greenback was last seen at 1.0931 against the euro, having hit its highest in a month earlier this week.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)
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