Gold below $1,300 amid signs of optimism in US
LONDON (Oct 11) The yellow metal declined below the $1,300 threshold during the last trading day of this week as there were signs from the US that a possible deal to end the government shutdown is in sight.
Gold futures for December were seen 0.34% lower at $1,292.50 an ounce on New York's Comex as of the time of writing, while silver futures dropped 0.85% to $21.71 an ounce at the same time.
Lawmakers to meet Obama
The partial government shutdown in the world's largest economy hit its tenth day on Thursday. Some investors expect that an agreement between President Barack Obama and Republicans may come soon as both parties were due to meet to find a solution to end the standoff and avoid the looming debt default before the October 17 deadline.
Just a few hours before the meeting with the US head of state on Thursday, House Republicans revealed a new strategy in the form of hiking the debt ceiling for six weeks, aiming to extend the debt limit to $16.7 trillion.
"It is our hope that the president will look at this as an opportunity and a good-faith effort on our part to move halfway, halfway to what he’s demanded in order to have these conversations begin," Republican House Speaker John Boehner stated during the press conference in Washington.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testified on Thursday on the debt ceiling before the senate panel, warning that the political stalemate is hurting world's largest economy and starting to stress financial markets. He also urged government to raise the debt limit in time, while saying that waiting until the very last minute could be very dangerous.
On Thursday, the number of first-time unemployment claims in the US was shown by official data to have risen by 66,000 to 374,000 in the week ending October 5, well above estimates of 307,000, while the previous week's figure showed an increase to 308,000.
