NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Prices of metals, both base and precious, traded higher during week helped by easing concerns over the eurozone crisis and positive economic data. The fact that global markets rallied helped the cause as well.
The S&P 500 index closed nearly 4% up Thursday following positive news on the economic front, the most notable being new orders for durable goods, which were up 2.9% during April as opposed to a 1.2% decline in March.
U.S. gross domestic product growth stood at 3% for the first quarter compared with 3.2% in the previous quarter. Furthermore, initial jobless claims fell by 11,000 to 460,000 from the previous week's 471,000.
Lastly, continuing claims dipped by 18,000 to 4.607 million during the week ended May 15 from 4.625 million in the previous week. New-home sales for April jumped 22.6% to 504,000 from 411,000 during March.
Gold
Gold retreated from its weekly highs as investors favored rallies in the euro and equity markets. Although the World Gold Council believes that demand will rebound this year on higher investment and jewelry demand, positive news flow on the European Union front may weaken the metal in the near term.
SPDR Gold Trust(GLD) reported gold holdings of 1,267.93 metric tonnes, up by a marginal 0.30 tonnes.
Gold was down 0.12% at $1,211.90 an ounce in Asian trading hours as the metal could not hold gains subsequent to China's denial of selling European bonds.
Positive economic news may lead to diversion of funds into equities. However, all is not well in Europe, which gives the yellow metal a strong support.
Silver
Supported by good performance in stock markets and firm base metals, silver prices ended 0.9% higher at $18.47 an ounce. With industrial demand bouncing back this year from its lows, we reckon the demand for silver will continue to remain strong.
The holdings of iShares Silver Trust(SLV) registered an increase of 27.43 tonnes to 9,218.80 metric tonnes from the previous business day.
