DT:Gold heads for 2nd week of gains on Fed reassurance
LONDON: Gold edged up on Friday and was on track for its second weekly gain, boosted by a slightly softer dollar following assurances from the US Federal Reserve about its plans for stimulus withdrawal. “It is still unclear whether the Fed’s tapering will start in September or December, and we still need some clarification on that before there will be a clear direction for the dollar and in turn for gold,” Danske Bank analyst Christin Tuxen said. “At the moment there is not much to drive gold but a few ups and downs in the euro/dollar trade,” she added. Spot gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,289.06 by 1221 GMT. US gold futures were up $4.30 at $1,288.60 an ounce. The dollar gave back Thursday’s gains, while the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield also eased, making non-interest bearing assets such as gold more attractive. The most active gold futures contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rose to a four-week peak at 4,171 yen ($41.67) a gram. As a gauge of investor interest, holdings of the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust fell 0.1 percent to 935.17 tonnes on Thursday, the lowest since early 2009. Silver was little changed at $19.33 an ounce. Palladium fell 0.3 percent to $740.22 an ounce and platinum gained 0.3 percent to $1,415.99 an ounce. reuters
