Gold Price Up On Bargain Hunting, Some Weaker US Data

New York (April 3)  Gold prices erased modest early losses Monday to end slightly higher on some bargain buying. Some weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data that fell into the camp of the monetary policy doves, who want to see a slower pace of U.S. interest rate increases, also helped out the precious metals bulls today. June Comex gold was last up $3.00 an ounce at $1,254.20. May Comex silver was last down $0.051 at $18.205 an ounce.

At mid-morning the U.S. construction spending report for February showed a gain of only 0.8% when a rise 1.2% was expected. Also at the same time, the U.S. March ISM manufacturing report showed a reading of 57.2 versus 57.7 in February. Gold prices pushed above unchanged in the immediate aftermath of that economic data.

While world stock markets were mostly firmer Monday, U.S. stock indexes were weaker in early afternoon New York trading. The weaker U.S. stock market was also a bullish daily element for the competing asset class gold.

The world marketplace will closely monitor this week’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The key U.S. employment report is also out on Friday morning.

The key outside markets on Monday saw the U.S. dollar index higher. The index has seen a solid rebound from a 3.5-month low hit last week and the bulls have the slight overall near-term technical advantage. Meantime, Nymex crude oil prices were weaker. However, the oil bulls still have some upside technical momentum to suggest a near-term market bottom is in place.

Source: KitcoNews