BLBG:Gold Set to Trim Monthly Loss as Dollar Weakens, Holdings Climb
Gold is poised to pare its first monthly loss since May as the dollar weakened and investor holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded products increased to a record.
The euro advanced as much as 0.4 percent against the U.S. dollar before euro-area finance chiefs hold a conference call to discuss ways to keep Greece in the shared currency as they may cut Greece some slack in meeting its bailout targets. Holdings in ETPs rose to 2,587.92 metric tons yesterday, data tracked by Bloomberg show.
“The dollar is weakening, all the risk assets are higher including gold,” Barry Ehrlich, an analyst at Alfa Bank, said by phone from Moscow. “Investors still have the preference for holding the underlying commodity,” he said, referring to the ETP holdings.
Gold for immediate delivery rose 0.4 percent to $1,715.68 an ounce by 9:14 a.m. in London. Bullion for December delivery rose 0.3 percent to $1,717 an ounce on the Comex in New York.
U.S. equity markets will resume trading today after the longest weather-related shutdown in more than a century, according to statements by NYSE Euronext, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and Bats Global Markets Inc. Aggregate volumes on Comex fell a second day to 58,186 contracts yesterday, less than half the volume on Oct. 26, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
London-traded bullion is down 3.2 percent this month after climbing 4.7 percent in September as central banks from Europe to China to the U.S. pledged to do more to stimulate their economies. It fell 3.7 percent in New York. Gold rose 70 percent as the Federal Reserve bought $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of quantitative easing, or QE, from December 2008 through June 2011.
Silver for immediate delivery gained 1 percent to $32.105 an ounce. Prices are down 7 percent this month, the first drop since June.
Platinum gained 0.7 percent to $1,564.13 an ounce, down 5.9 percent for the month. Palladium jumped 2 percent to $608.50 an ounce, heading for a 4.8 percent decline in October.
To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in London at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net; Phoebe Sedgman in Melbourne at psedgman2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
