The gold price made modest losses on Thursday afternoon, as ETF outflows continued and strong retail sales data underpinned an advance in the dollar.
Spot gold was last seen below the $1,180 level at $1,178.00/1,178.80 per ounce, down $7.30 on the previous session, having traded within a $13 intraday range so far.
The metal had already appeared vulnerable throughout the session, though strong US retail sales data for May added to the pressure on the complex, pushing the dollar up 0.8 percent to 1.1230.
US retail sales for May came in at 1.2 percent, against forecasts of 1.1 percent and well above the previous figure of 0 percent. The core figure, which strips out the volatile elements, also bettered expectations at 1 percent against consensus at 0.7 percent.
The figures suggest that household spending is finally beginning to reflect job growth and lower gasoline prices and more importantly, that growth in the second quarter will bounce back from the contractionary territory of the first quarter.
The dollar also took gains from a weaker euro on news that IMF spokesman Gerry Rice claimed that there are “major differences” between creditors and Greece “in most key areas” of negotiations on the country’s bailout.
Elsewhere, gold ETF outflows have continued; holdings in the world’s largest gold ETF – SPDR Gold Trust – dropped to their lowest since September 2008 at 704.22 tonnes, which was the same month that US investment bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.
“In other words, all the holdings that had been built up since then have now been withdrawn again,” Commerzbank’s Carsten Fritsch said.
In other data, weekly US jobless claims were as expected, in at 279,000, while import prices bettered consensus at 1.3 percent.
Chinese industrial production moved up to 6.1 percent. Retail sales came in as expected at 10.1 percent, while fixed asset investment was lower than the previous 11.4 percent.
In other precious metals, silver was last down 8 cents at $15.91/15.96 per ounce, platinum slipped $8 at $1,101/1,106 and palladium was unchanged at $740/745.
Editing by Archie Hunter
The post Gold price remains in negative territory as dollar extends gains appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
No comments:
Post a Comment