Investors also take in steeper decline in June durable-goods orders
By Claudia Assis and Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures traded at a record Wednesday as the prolonged standoff in Washington over increasing the U.S. debt ceiling continued and as durable-goods data proved disappointing.
Gold for August delivery GC1Q +0.61% rose $9, or 0.6% to $1,625.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The December contract GC1Z +0.59% , with the most volume, traded $8.90 higher at $1,628.20 an ounce.
On Tuesday, August gold added $4.60, or 0.3%, to end at $1,616.80 in New York, settling at a record. Read more on Tuesday's gold and metals trading.
As U.S. lawmakers’ impasse continued, Speaker John Boehner said House GOP leaders would be rewriting his bill to raise the limit before the Aug. 2 deadline.
The House may end up voting on the bill on Thursday rather than the initially scheduled Wednesday vote. Read more on Boehner rewriting debt bill.
“The debt ceiling is a tricky issue to trade, in our opinion,” said MF Global analyst Tom Pawlicki.
Gold prices could “remain in a slow drift higher,” adding $3 to $6 an ounce daily until the debt-ceiling issue is resolved, he said — and then potentially fall $20 to $30 an ounce on the day an agreement is reached.
“The best counter to this in our opinion is to shorten trade durations,” Pawlicki told clients in a note.
Also Wednesday, U.S. durable-goods orders fell 2.1% in June, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a flat reading in orders for big-ticket items built to last. Read more about durable goods.
Other metals traded mixed. Silver tracked gold higher, with the September contract SI1U +1.49% adding 58 cents, or 1.4%, to $41.28 an ounce.
Copper traded modestly lower, with the September contract HG1U -0.47% retreating 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $4.46 a pound.
Miners at Chile’s Escondida copper mine, the world’s largest, remained on strike on Wednesday.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Lisa Twaronite is MarketWatch's Tokyo bureau chief.
