Gold prices tacked higher during Asian trading hours on Friday and headed towards logging second successive weekly gains as the dollar remained slightly weak, supporting the demand from holders of other currencies. Silver prices, meanwhile, edged lower in early trading on Friday.
Gold futures for August delivery added 0.10% to $1,286.80 an ounce while spot gold edged up 0.27% to $1,287.90 an ounce.
Silver futures were last down 0.10% to $19.37 an ounce.
Bullion prices having sank more than 1% on Wednesday, recovered some of its losses in the previous session after the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke in his second day of congressional testimony reiterated the bank’s commitment towards accommodating monetary policy.
Although Bernanke said the winding down of the $85 billion monthly bond purchase program was expected later this year, he did emphasize that there was no “preset course”. That implies, the tapering of economic stimulating measures will depend upon the macroeconomic indicators.
The ICE dollar Index, a measure in greenback’s performance against a basket of six major traded currencies, slipped to 82.618 in Asian trading hours from 82.783 in late trading on Friday.
The metal has now plunged nearly 25% since the beginning of the year as investors remain reluctant to take bets on inflation-hedge assets, fearing sooner than latter winding down of the quantitative easing amid vastly improving U.S. macroeconomic environment.
Investors’ falling faith in the metal is also reflected by continued outflows from the gold-backed exchange traded funds.
A data provided by Reuters showed that holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSE: GLD), the world’s largest gold backed ETF, fell another 0.1% to 935.17 tons on Thursday. The fund’s holdings are at lowest level since early 2009, according to Reuters.
More Posts by this author
Stocks End on a Mixed Note
Gold Prices Fall Sharply; Silver Prices also Tumble
Stocks Reverse Initial Gains; Turn Lower in Mid-Day Trading
Stocks Gain in Early Trading
Forex Market Update: Euro Gains Against Dollar After PMI Data
Gold Futures Edge Higher; Silver Futures Also Gain
Stock Futures Gain
 |
Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht. |
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications.