Gold Prices Near Steady In Quieter Trading; New Fundamental Inputs Awaited

San Francisco (Dec 9)  Gold prices are not straying too far from unchanged levels in subdued early U.S. trading Monday. Traders and investors are awaiting fresh news to drive the markets. While the gold market bears are in firm overall technical control, the bulls were impressed by Friday’s price action, in which gold was able to stabilize after a bearish U.S. jobs report was released Friday morning.   By 1:13pm NY time, gold was up $4 to $1,2334, while silver rose 17 cents to $19.70/oz.  

In overnight news from the European Union, German industrial production showed a surprising decline of 1.2% in October from September. This was well short of market place expectations of a rise of 0.8%. Greece’s GDP contracted by 3.0% in the third quarter, on an annualized basis. After six years of contraction, Greece’s GDP is forecast to rise just a bit in 2014.

In Asia, stock markets there were supported by a rise in China’s trade surplus to a nearly five-year high.

The OECD reported overnight that it expects economic growth worldwide to pick up the pace just slightly in 2014.