FY: Gold Prices Remain Steady as U.S Data and Euro-Zone Concerns Put Off Investors; Silver Prices Flat
Gold prices remained flat as growing worries over euro-zone debt financing along with disappointing U.S. economic data turned off investors from the bullion market. Meanwhile, silver prices have remained flat.
While Spot gold edged up slightly by 0.1 percent to $1,644.15 an ounce by 0327 GMT, heading towards 0.9-percent weekly fall, U.S. gold climbed up 0.2 percent to $1,645.10.
Surprisingly weak demand for physical gold has also weighed on metal’s price. The demand for gold from India- world’s biggest importer- remains sluggish even as a gold buying festival ‘Akshaya Tritya’ approaches next week.
According to Reuters market analyst, Wang Tao, technical analysis suggest that the metal could well fall as low as $1,611.80 an ounce, during the day.
The debt crisis in the euro-zone has once again unnerved market participants. Although economists believe that both Italy and Spain will not require any international bailouts; concerns still prevail among investors as yields on long term and short term bonds shoot up in Spain, this week.
The bullion has lost more than 1% this month. The yellow metal has acted more as commodity rather than a safe haven instrument, moving in tandem with equities and other commodities. This is stark contrast to first quarter, when gold rallied following strings of positive economic data along with hopes of further monetary easing by the central bank.
Commenting over this matter, Peter Tse, director at ScotiaMocatta in Hong Kong, said to CNBC, “Gold lacks its own momentum to move anywhere, and we are waiting for the next major U.S. data, or a major development in Europe”.
Gold investors will keep a close eye on the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday during which the Federal Reserve is expected to adopt a wait and watch approach towards easing monetary policy, even though the downbeat economic data has kept hopes alive for another round of quantitative easing.
Meanwhile, silver prices stood mostly unchanged at $31.74 an ounce, heading towards 0.9% weekly gains. Silver prices gained yesterday as a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters showed that silver fabrication would rise up 3 to 5 percent this year as end users replenish stock.
In early trading, the iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSE: SLV) is down 0.10%, the ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF) (NYSE: AGQ) is down 0.15% to $52.09, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ETF) (NYSE: ZSL) is down 0.09% to $10.90.
