Gold price finds support from varied US data

The spot gold price managed slight gains during Asian trading hours on Friday December 23 following the release of a range of US data on Thursday.

The spot gold price was recently quoted at $1,130.60/1,130.95 per oz, up $2.42 on the previous close. Trade has ranged from $1,128.40 to $1,131.65 so far.

On Thursday, the US final third quarter GDP growth was revised upwards to 3.5% from 3.2% and core durable goods orders increased 0.5% month-on-month in November, which was better than the forecast of 0.2%. Durable goods orders fell 4.6% month-on-month in November, still better than expectations of a 4.9% drop.

Weekly unemployment claims, however, came in at 275,000 above consensus of 255,000. The November core PCE price index was flat against the forecast of 0.1% and personal spending was at 0.2% below expectations of 0.4%.

CB leading index and personal income were both unchanged in November, and below their forecast of 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

“The latest [US] data which has both positive and negative reflects the state of the current US economy. Taking into consideration the outlook for the US economy, future US economic data should trend towards improvement. This could provide some downward pressure for gold and silver,” China’s Zhengjin Precious Metals said late on Thursday.

Recent strong US macroeconomic data and optimism over president-elect Donald Trump’s potential infrastructure spending plans have raised expectations of more interest rate increases in the USA next year. This has also boosted the US dollar and increased appeal of risk assets like equities, while decreasing the attractiveness of haven assets like gold.

In currencies, the US dollar index fell 0.04% to 103.04 so far on Friday.

In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price slipped 0.26% to $54.70 per barrel recently.

In equities, the Shanghai Composite eased 0.39% to 3,127.29 so far today.

In the other precious metals, the spot silver price increased $0.03 to $15.830/15.850 per oz. Platinum gained $3 to $906/911 per oz, and palladium rose $5 to $657/662 per oz.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for June delivery was recently at 263.80 yuan ($38) per gram, and the June silver was at 4,008 yuan per kg.

(Editing by Kyle Docherty)

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