The gold price
Gold steady in Asia, ready for key US data - 21 December 2006
Data on third quarter economic growth, personal consumption and initial jobless claims could all give clues to the direction of Fed interest rates. That might also give clues to the direction of the US Dollar.
"European Central Bank chief Trichet's nod [yesterday] toward higher interest rates in Europe may weigh more heavily on the Dollar as the next ECB meeting draws near," said James Steel at HSBC in a note yesterday. "This may be supportive of gold, we believe."
The gold price in Hong Kong has risen overnight, according to the Bank of China, up $5 to the equivalent of $622 per ounce. In India, the price of gold for February '07 delivery rose to $634 per ounce on Mumbai's Multi Commodity Exchange. And bullion for delivery in December 2007 held steady in Tokyo at $627 an ounce.
"There's some very light physical buying around, a bit of bargain hunting as prices are quite stable," said Peter Tse, chief precious-metals trader at ScotiaMocatta, the bullion arm of Bank of Nova Scotia, in Hong Kong.
"With fund managers looking to balance their accounts [and] do some window dressing before the end of the year," added a dealer in Sydney, "there is the potential for a few wobbles in things like the US Dollar and the oil price."
"That should be reflected in the gold price as well," he said.
But whether gold rises today against the Dollar or not, the long-term outlook remains strong for gold investors. Find out why – click here to keep reading...
Adrian Ash runs the research desk at BullionVault, the physical gold and silver market for private investors online. Formerly head of editorial at London's top publisher of private-investment advice, he was City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning from 2003 to 2008, and is now a regular contributor to many leading analysis sites including Forbes and a regular guest on BBC national and international radio and television news. Adrian's views on the gold market have been sought by the Financial Times and Economist magazine in London; CNBC, Bloomberg and TheStreet.com in New York; Germany's Der Stern and FT Deutschland; Italy's Il Sole 24 Ore, and many other respected finance publications.
Please Note: All articles published here are to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it. Please review our Terms & Conditions for accessing Gold News, RSS links are shown there.
