Gold futures erased losses in made Asian trade to close essentially unchanged and just above the 200-day moving average for the second straight day.
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 10 cents to close at $1,225.30 per ounce. Trade ranged from $1,210.60 to $1,225.80.
The dollar was last 0.3 percent weaker at 1.1440 against the euro, after dropping to the lowest price in three months yesterday. However, the greenback still remains strong and waning consumer confidence forced investors into gold as a safe-haven over equities.
University of Michigan consumer sentiment and inflation expectations were 88.6, off the 95.8 prediction and down from 95.9 in April, which was the largest month-to-month decline in more than two years and the lowest reading since October.
“Consumer optimism fell markedly in May, as expectations for a near-term, 2014-style rebound are continuously undermined by accelerating weakness in investment, manufacturing, and production,” Lindsey M. Piegza, Chief Economist at Sterne Agee, said. “Lingering themes of a strong dollar and low energy prices, as well as restrained income growth capping off household spending, will continue to restrain activity levels as they did in first quarter.”
In data, the US Empire State manufacturing index at 3.1 was worse than the expected 5.1 but still an improvement on the previous month’s reading. With the overall strength of the dollar, manufacturing continues to suffer.
“The downward trend in the data from a reading of 10 at the start of the year suggests manufacturing is suffering, which comes as no surprise considering the overall strength of the dollar,” William Adams, head of research at FastMarkets, said.
In data released earlier, Chinese foreign direct investment was 10.4 percent and Japanese consumer confidence slipped to 41.5.
In US equities, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P were both down 0.1 percent.
As for the other precious metals, Comex silver for July delivery was up less than a cent to close at $17.563 per ounce. Trade ranged from to $17.205 to $17.585. Platinum for July delivery on the Nymex was up $6.50 at $1,168.9 per ounce, while the most actively traded palladium contract was at $792.80, up $13.30.
Light sweet crude (WTI) oil futures on the Nymex were down $0.42 or 0.7 percent to 60.41 per barrel.
(Editing by Tom Jennemann)
The post Gold prices reverse on fresh safe-haven demand appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
No comments:
Post a Comment