Gold price up, at 3-week high, as bulls gain momentum
New York (Apr 8) Gold prices are up and hit a three-week high in early U.S. trading Thursday. The yellow metal’s near-term technical posture has improved recently, which is inviting the shorter-term futures traders to play the long side of the market. A fading U.S. dollar index this week is also favoring the precious metals market bulls. June gold futures were last up $6.20 at $1,748.00 and May Comex silver was last up $0.173 at $25.42 an ounce.
Global stock markets were mostly firmer overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward modestly higher openings when the New York day session begins. The Dow and S&P 500 indexes have hit record highs this week. Traders and investors continue to exhibit a little risk aversion and that is boosting the equity markets but continues to constrain safe-haven gold and silver.
The Wednesday afternoon release of the minutes of the last Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that took place in March showed no surprises and the takeaway was that the Fed will keep its monetary policy very accommodative for some time to come. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak Thursday at midday at an International Monetary Fund event.
There was civil unrest and rioting in Northern Ireland Thursday, which the marketplace will continue to monitor. Many believe the situation could get worse as the U.K. tries to figure out what to do with the rules of the region, post-Brexit.
In other overnight news, the Euro zone producer price index rose 0.5% in February from January and was up 1.5%, year-on-year.
The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index weaker as the greenback bulls are fading this week. Nymex crude oil prices are lower and trading around $59.30 a barrel. Meantime, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently fetching around 1.646%.
U.S. economic data due for release Thursday includes the weekly jobless claims report and monthly chain store sales.
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