Gold price drops in quiet trading

The spot gold price marched lower during Asian morning trading hours on Friday December 22 in thin trading ahead of the Christmas holiday.

The spot gold price was quoted at $1,265.75-1,266.1 per oz as of 11.42 Shanghai time, down $1 on yesterday’s close. Trade has ranged from $1,266.15 to $1,268.4 so far.

• Before its retreat this morning, the gold price had maintained a slow but steady ascent, climbing to as high as 1269.25 overnight, due to an exhausted buying appetite on equity markets.
• “[The gold price was] stronger … after stronger equity markets driven by the passage of the US tax cut plan sapped investor appetite,” ANZ Research said.
• But the yellow metal lost strength this morning due to muted trading ahead of the Christmas holiday.
• “As we head into the holiday season, we would expect trading to be muted,” analyst from OANDA said.
• Meanwhile, a slight pick-up in the US dollar also added to the pressure to the yellow metal price.
• After dipping to 93.22 early this morning, the US dollar index managed to move up to as high as 93.55 at 8.15am Shanghai time.

Silver up, PGMs mixed

• In the other precious metals, the spot silver price rose $0.01 to $16.135/16.155 per oz. Platinum lost $1 to $909/914 per oz and palladium was up $3 at $1,036/1,041 per oz.
• On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for June delivery was recently at 274.75 yuan ($41.76) per gram, and the June silver was at 3,794 yuan per kilogram.

Currency moves and data releases

• The dollar index was up by 0.01% at 93.39 as of 11.42am Shanghai time.
• In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price rose 0.11% to $64.69 per barrel while the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price inched down 0.05% to $58.13 per barrel.
• In equities, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.09% to 3,302.88.
• In US data out on Thursday, final third-quarter GDP came in at 3.2%, while unemployment claims stood at 245,000. The Philly Fed manufacturing index was above estimates at 26.2. Lastly, the House Price Index (HPI) October number exceeded expectations with a 0.5% reading.
• In EU data, the December consumer confidence flash number came in line with forecasts at 0.5.
• The economic data calendar is still busy for the last working day prior to Christmas, with US personal income and spending, new home sales, durable goods orders, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, as well as UK GDP growth numbers all due out later today.

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