Gold and silver futures plunged to multi-week lows on Thursday, after
upbeat U.S. jobless claims data added to speculation the Federal Reserve
will begin tapering its bond-buying program at its upcoming policy
meeting next week.
The central bank is scheduled to meet September 17-18 to review the economy and assess policy.
Market players 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.
Moves in the gold and silver price this year have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the U.S. central bank would end its bond-buying program sooner-than-expected.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery traded at USD1,334.60 a troy ounce during U.S. morning hours, down 2.15%. The December contract ended Tuesday’s session little changed at USD1,363.80 a troy ounce.
Gold fell by as much as 2.2% earlier in the day to hit a session low of USD1,332.40 a troy ounce, the weakest level since August 15.
Futures were likely to find support at USD1,318.10 a troy ounce, the low from August 15 and resistance at USD1,387.10, the high from September 10.
The Department of Labor said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 292,000 from 323,000 in the previous week.
However, the report said the decline was largely due to two states not processing all claims received because of computer upgrades.
Some technical selling also contributed to gold’s losses after prices broke below their 100-day moving average close to the USD1,356-level, triggering a flurry of automatic sell orders amid bearish chart signals.
The precious metal is on track to post a loss of nearly 20% on the year as traders bet an improving U.S. economy would lead the Fed to unwind its stimulus program by the year's end.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery plunged 3.05% to trade at USD22.46 a troy ounce, the weakest level since August 20.
Meanwhile, copper for December delivery lost 1.45% to trade at USD3.210 a pound, the lowest since August 8.
The central bank is scheduled to meet September 17-18 to review the economy and assess policy.
Market players 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.
Moves in the gold and silver price this year have largely tracked shifting expectations as to whether the U.S. central bank would end its bond-buying program sooner-than-expected.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery traded at USD1,334.60 a troy ounce during U.S. morning hours, down 2.15%. The December contract ended Tuesday’s session little changed at USD1,363.80 a troy ounce.
Gold fell by as much as 2.2% earlier in the day to hit a session low of USD1,332.40 a troy ounce, the weakest level since August 15.
Futures were likely to find support at USD1,318.10 a troy ounce, the low from August 15 and resistance at USD1,387.10, the high from September 10.
The Department of Labor said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 292,000 from 323,000 in the previous week.
However, the report said the decline was largely due to two states not processing all claims received because of computer upgrades.
Some technical selling also contributed to gold’s losses after prices broke below their 100-day moving average close to the USD1,356-level, triggering a flurry of automatic sell orders amid bearish chart signals.
The precious metal is on track to post a loss of nearly 20% on the year as traders bet an improving U.S. economy would lead the Fed to unwind its stimulus program by the year's end.
Elsewhere on the Comex, silver for December delivery plunged 3.05% to trade at USD22.46 a troy ounce, the weakest level since August 20.
Meanwhile, copper for December delivery lost 1.45% to trade at USD3.210 a pound, the lowest since August 8.
No comments:
Post a Comment