Gold Down on Technical Selling, Upbeat U.S. Economic Data

San Francisco (May 1)  Gold prices ended the U.S. day session moderately lower Thursday. A lack of fresh, bullish news for the gold market is allowing the technical traders to dominate—and the near-term technical posture for gold remains bearish. Also, generally upbeat U.S. economic data released Thursday fell in favor of the bearish camp of gold traders. June gold was last down $10.70 at $1,285.00 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $6.00 at $1,285.75. May Comex silver last traded down $0.079 at $19.04 an ounce.

After digesting Wednesday afternoon’s FOMC statement from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the “take away” from that report is that the U.S. economy is picking up momentum after a rough winter. Thursday’s U.S. economic data fell in line with the FOMC statement.  Such has allowed the major stock indexes to hover near their recent record highs, and in turn is a bearish underlying factor for other asset classes, including gold and silver.

In overnight news, the much-anticipated China official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 50.4 in April from 50.3 in March, it was reported Thursday. That reading was right in line with market expectations and had little impact on the market place.

The market place is awaiting what is arguably the most important economic report of the month on Friday: the April U.S. employment situation report from the Labor Department. The key non-farm payrolls number is forecast to come in at up around 215,000.

The Russia-Ukraine crisis is still on the radar screen of the world market place. However, there has been little fresh news coming from that region this week. Still, this situation is likely to get worse before it gets any better. Gold and other safe-haven assets will likely at least see selling interest limited due to the instability in Ukraine.

The London P.M. gold fixing is $1,278.50 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,288.50.