IV:Gold futures trade near 5-week high as investors eye Fed meeting
Investing.com - Gold prices traded near a five-week high on Monday, as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting later in the week, amid expectations that the central bank will delay plans to start tapering stimulus until well into next year.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery traded at USD1,348.70 a troy ounce during European morning trade, down 0.3%.
Prices traded in range between USD1,346.30 a troy ounce, the daily low and a session high of USD1,354.00 a troy ounce.
The December contract rose to USD1,356.40 on Friday, the strongest level since September 20, before closing at USD1,352.50, up 0.16%.
Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,310.10 a troy ounce, the low from October 22 and near-term resistance at USD1,366.50, the high from September 20.
Official data on Friday showed that U.S. core durable goods orders declined for the third consecutive month in September, while another report showed that U.S. consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level in almost a year this month.
The disappointing data underlined expectations that the Fed will maintain its stimulus program well into 2014 to support the economy following the 16-day U.S. government shutdown.
The central bank is scheduled to begin its two-day policy-meeting on October 29 to review the economy and assess policy. Market analysts expect the Fed to keep its USD 85 billion-a-month asset purchase program on track.
Gold prices have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the Fed would start tapering its USD85-billion-a-month asset-purchase program by the end of the year.
U.S. data releases will also be in focus in the week ahead, with reports on retail sales, inflation figures, pending home sales and private-sector jobs growth all on tap.
Gold traders have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Fed to reduce its bond purchases.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery shed 0.6% to trade at USD22.50 a troy ounce, while copper for December delivery inched up 0.3% to trade at USD3.279 a pound.
