Gold continued to climb higher on Thursday afternoon, maintaining the uplift provided by the dovish Federal Reserve July meeting minutes released overnight and a sliding stock market today.
The spot gold price was last at $1,150.0/1,150.5 per ounce, up $17 on the previous close and its highest in five weeks. Trade has ranged from $1,132.8 to $1,151.7 so far.
The July 28-29 FOMC meeting minutes suggested that the Fed may resist raising rates in September. According to Fed Fund Futures, the probability of a rate hike is now only roughly 30 percent.
The dollar weakened following the release of the minutes with the basket index last at 96.04.
“In line with our expectations, a short-covering rally occurred sooner rather than later,” FastMarkets analyst Boris Mikanikrezai said. “In the near-term, we expect that gold prices will continue to push higher, driven essentially by further short-covering.”
In a heavy US data day, weekly unemployment claims were at 277,000, near the forecast of 272,000 and holding below the psychological 300,000 mark.
Meanwhile existing home sales in July were at an annualised 5.59 million, above the forecast of 5.45 million. The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index in August was at 8.3, besting the 6.9 prediction. Additionally, the CB leading index month-over-month in July declined 0.2 percent, missing the estimate of a 0.2 percent uptick.
Earlier, the German PPI month-over-month in July was unchanged, above the consensus of a 0.1 percent dip.
In the other precious metals, silver was last at $15.49/15.54, up 22 cents. Platinum at $1,026/1,032 climbed $17 – its highest in around five weeks – and palladium at $618/623 was $10 higher.
(Editing by Martin Hayes)
The post Gold extends gains, climbs to five-week high appeared first on The Bullion Desk.
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