Gold continues to slide as Goldman sees more ETF selling

             Gold futures traded lower in the early part of Thursday’s Asian session following another down day Wednesday in the U.S. 

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery fell 0.52% to USD1,375.55 per troy ounce in Asia trading Thursday after settling down 0.81% at USD1,376.15 a troy ounce in U.S. trading on Wednesday. 

Gold futures were likely to test support USD1,322.25 a troy ounce, Tuesday's low, and resistance at USD1,494.95, Monday's high. 

The International Monetary Fund’s reduced outlook for 2013 global growth weighed on precious metals Wednesday. On Wednesday, the IMF trimmed its 2013 world economic growth forecast to 3.3%, down from a January projection of 3.5%, while the multilateral lending institution's 2014 growth forecast fell to 4.0% from 4.1%. 

Those headlines sent U.S. stocks tumbling and investors into safe-havens such as the U.S. dollar. Adding to gold’s woes were comments from Goldman Sachs. The venerable Wall Street bank, which recently told clients to short the yellow metal, said "there is the potential for a further sell-off in ETF holdings given that a significant portion of the holdings 8 moz or 11% of the existing holdings, were purchased at levels at or above current gold prices." 

Goldman made the comments in a research note published Wednesday. Gold ETFs such as the SPDR Gold Shares are among the largest holders of gold in the world. In fact, the SPDR Gold Shares owns more gold than many global central banks. 

"Finally, to put the size of the ETF holdings into context: at its peak of 84.6 moz, the ETF’s aggregate holdings were the third-largest in the world, ranking behind only the US and German central banks. The 8.5 moz liquidated from ETFs since the start of the year represent almost 10% of annual gold mine supply, which takes the aggregate ETF holdings down to a number four ranking," Goldman said in the note. 

Elsewhere, Comex silver for May delivery fell 0.32% to USD23.233 per ounce while copper for May delivery dropped 0.51% to USD3.162 per ounce.
Courtesy : Investing.com