Gold rises while dollar, equities mostly unchanged

Otmane El Rhazi from The Bullion Desk.

Gold prices edged slightly higher while the dollar and US equities were little changed after mixed US data.

Spot gold was last up $1.40 to $1,222.20/1,223 per ounce, still around its 200-day moving average of $1,217.40.

The gold price rallied this week following a spate of forecast-missing numbers from the US that unsettled investors, and weighed on the dollar. The greenback, which yesterday slipped to its lowest since February above 1.14 against the euro, remained under pressure at 1.1425.

In US 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. University of Michigan consumer sentiment and inflation expectations were 88.6, missing the 95.8 prediction, while inflation expectations were 2.9 percent.

“While consumer sentiment was disappointing, a further rise in inflation expectations bodes well, so it comes as little surprise gold has rallied on that,” William Adams, head of research at Fastmarkets, said.

In the US equities, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P were both down 0.1 percent.

In data out of Asia earlier, Chinese foreign direct investment was a lower-than-expected 10.4 percent and Japanese consumer confidence slipped to 41.5.

Silver at $17.48/17.52 per ounce was slightly lower than the previous close of $17.478. Platinum at $1,168/1,172 was up $15 and palladium was $11 higher at $789/794.

 

(Additional reporting by Kathleen Retourne, editing by Mark Shaw)

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