Gold price turned higher!

The gold price turned higher Thursday morning amid weakness in the U.S. dollar and a worse than expected report on the U.S. labor market.  The spot price of gold slid to $1,651.32 per ounce in overnight trading, but later jumped over $25 on an intra-day basis to trade at $1,676.53. Strength in the gold price was driven by the latest weekly jobless claims figures, which at 380,000 came in noticeably above the 355,000 consensus estimate among economists.  

In an interview with Bloomberg, 4Cast Inc. senior economist Sean Incremona stated that “On the back of last week’s employment report, this does suggest momentum in (the) labor market is slowing a bit.”  The U.S. Dollar Index declined 0.5% to 79.406 following the jobless claims data, which also provided a lift for the price of gold.

Commenting on the recent stretch of worse than expected employment data, Jeremy Friesen – a commodity strategist at Societe Generale – wrote in a recent note to clients that “If weak data continues, the Fed will have to intervene again to stimulate consumption…The next couple of years will be really challenging for global growth and central banks will be relied on as a crutch to get us through.”

Friesen provided additional remarks supportive of higher gold prices.  “On the public level, China’s central bank will continue to accumulate gold, which is easier than liberalising their capital account and currency.”

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