By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch)—Gold prices moved lower during European trading hours on Monday, as weak data out of Japan and China weighed on sentiment.
Gold futures for December GCZ2 -0.17% slipped 80 cents, or 0.1%, to $1,773.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Last week, the metal closed out the quarter with its biggest quarterly gain since 2010, as a third round of quantitative easing in the U.S. stoked fears of inflation and currency depreciation, which is normally bullish for commodity prices.
On Monday, metal traders turned their attention to Asia, where the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey showed business sentiment at large Japanese manufacturers deteriorated in September. See: Japan big manufacturers' sentiment worsens: Tankan.
Data from China further painted a bleak picture, as the official Purchasing Manager’s Index showed Chinese manufacturing contracted for a second straight month in September. See: China manufacturing contracts for second month.
“Overall we see prices being influenced by the tug of war between the bearish fundamentals and the bullish QE and stimulus,” said William Adams, head of research at FastMarket in a note.
“With China on holiday this week, we would not be surprised for some choppy trading and that may last until the metals world has time to discuss the markets during London Metals Week that will be under way in two weeks time,” he said.
Elsewhere in the metals complex, futures dropped across the board.
Silver for December delivery SIZ2 -0.34% fell 0.1% to $34.55 an ounce, while copper for the same month HGZ2 -0.31% dropped 0.1% to $3.75 a pound.
January platinum PLF3 -0.10% gave up 0.4% to $1,663.00 an ounce, while palladium for December delivery PAZ2 -0.52% fell 0.4% to $638.20 an ounce.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.
