Gold rallied to 3-1/2 month highs on Wednesday, as soft US data and concerns over deflationary pressures in China fuelled expectations the US Federal Reserve will hold off raising interest rates, pressuring stocks and the dollar. Spot gold peaked at $1,188.20 an ounce, its highest since June 23, and was up 1.6 percent at $1,187.56 an ounce at 3:09 pm EDT (1909 GMT). It extended gains, leading up to and after release of the Fed Beige Book report, which showed US labour markets continued to tighten and US manufacturing hurt by recent dollar strength.
US gold futures for December delivery settled up 1.2 percent at $1,179.80 an ounce, settling above their 200-day moving average for the first time in five months, marking a bullish technical close. "This close breaks us out of the downtrend we had seen for most of the year," said Dan Izzo, vice-president, Global Marketing Strategy Group for brokerage RJO'Brien in New York. Among other precious metals, silver was up 1.7 percent at $16.16 an ounce, platinum was up 0.8 percent at $994.75 an ounce, and palladium was up 2.8 percent at $698.50 an ounce.
Comments
Comments are closed.