Gold and Silver Trade With No Direction

                    Gold is trading at 1573.85 this morning at the end of the Asian session. Gold closed on Monday at $1576 making very little headway since the end of the week. Gold declined on a weekly basis by 1.21% and the average rate reached $1,571.3 which was 1.88% below last week’s average rate. Gold ended the week at $1,575.5. Silverprices also fell during the previous week by 3.79%, furthermore, the average rate fell by 4.9% to reach $27.20 compared to last week’s average. This morning silver is trading at $27.273 following in gold’s shadow. The metals markets have been very quiet this so far this week following jobs data last Friday.

Last week, the U.S. Labor Department’s monthly report showed that the economy added only 88,000 jobs in March, the lowest monthly gain since last June and far below expectations. Economists surveyed by CNN Money had expected a gain of 190,000 jobs. The unemployment rate slipped to 7.6%, but that was also bad news because nearly 500,000 people dropped out of the labor market. This kind of gloomy snapshot sent investors rushing toward U.S. Treasuries, but the 10-year yield dropped to 1.7%, its lowest level since December 2012. Gold, which is also perceived to be a traditional safe haven, gained 1.5% at the end of the week, ending the COMEX session at the high for the day

Thursday night, the Japanese government halted trading in the Japanese 10 yr. bond which saw its yield first drop to .32%, then in a few hours it doubled to .65%. This set off circuit breakers and caused the authorities to halt trading. By closing time New York, the USD/yen currency cross bolted past the 97.00 price 97.51. The 10 year Japanese bond finished Friday night at .53% yield. This morning the JPY continued its climbed to break the 99 price level.

Billionaire investor George Soros and Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund, said the Bank of Japan’s currency debasement risks weakening the yen. Indeed, Soros has warned of a currency “avalanche”.

On Monday, the Bank of Japan began buying 1.2trillion yen of JGB which through the markets into turmoil and the Tokyo exchange was closed for a short period of time.  Later in the day on Monday Fed Chairman Bernanke had little to say that interested traders, although an ex-Fed member said that this year the Fed are prepared for the spring slow down and have held their monetary easing in place and will mostly likely continue their 85billion in monthly purchases through the summer at least. This possibility continues to keep gold and the US dollar trading fairly evenly.

Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust gold-backed exchange traded fund, stood at 1205.31 tons by Apr 07, remains unchanged from the previous business day while silver backed exchange-traded fund iShares Silver Trust stood at 10497.59 tons by Apr 07, remains unchanged also. It seems precious metal traders are waiting for direction from the markets.

Courtesy : FxEmpire

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Gold down following reversal in U.S. stocks

                Gold futures are trading slightly lower in the early part of Tuesday’s Asian session after a sharp reversal in U.S. stocks Monday chased investors toward riskier assets. 

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for June delivery fell 0.07% to USD1,571.45 per troy ounce in Asian trading Tuesday after settling down 0.23% at USD1,572.35 a troy ounce in U.S. trading on Monday. 

Gold futures were likely to test support USD1,539.85 a troy ounce, Thursday's low, and resistance at USD1,582.85, the earlier high. 

The yellow metal fell victim to some profit taking during Monday’s U.S. session after surging last Friday after the U.S. Labor Department reported that the world's largest economy added 88,000 nonfarm payrolls in March, well below expectations for a gain of 200,000 and below the 268,000 jobs added in February. 

While gold is off to a miserable start this year, some traders see reasons for optimism, particularly if futures can hold above long-term support at USD1,525 per troy ounce. Recent data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicate professional traders and other market participants have been scaling back their bearish bets on bullion. 

Elsewhere, the U.S. state of Arizona is pushing to have gold and silver used as legal tender. Utah made a similar move in 2011 to have gold used as an everyday currency. More than a dozen other U.S. states are considering similar action due in large part to disagreements with the Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policy. 

Meanwhile, Comex silver for May delivery is up 0.06% at USD27.153 per ounce while copper for May delivery is higher by 0.33% at USD3.384 per ounce.
Courtesy :investing.com

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Natural Gas dips on profit taking after weather rally wanes

  

             Natural gas futures dipped in afternoon trading on Monday after investors sold the commodity for profits earned from weather reports calling for below-normal temperatures.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for delivery in May traded at USD4.082 per million British thermal units, down 1.05%.

The commodity hit a session low of USD4.046 and a high of USD4.178.

Weather services began predicting late last week that colder-than-normal temperatures will return to the northern and central reaches of the country in the coming days and push up demand for heating, which sent prices rising to levels ripe for profit taking.

Elsewhere, warmer-than-normal temperatures settling in over the southeastern U.S. should prompt more households and businesses to run up their air conditioners and demand more natural gas as well.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, hiked its price estimate for this year by USD0.65 to an average USD4.40 per million British thermal units due to abnormally cold weather in March, which fueled the rally as well, though profit taking kicked in by Monday afternoon.

Investors were looking forward to supply data due for release on Thursday.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week that natural gas storage fell by 94 billion cubic feet, more or less in line with market calls for a drop of 91 billion cubic feet.

The drawdown did see total U.S. natural gas storage fall to 1.687 trillion cubic feet, 32% lower than last year at this time and 2.1% below the five-year average. 

Gas inventories had held above the five-year average since September 2011.

Early withdrawal estimates for this week’s storage data range from 20 billion cubic feet to 36 billion cubic feet. 

Inventories rose by 11 billion cubic feet in the same week a year earlier, while the five-year average change for the week is a rise of 15 billion cubic feet.

U.S. Elsewhere on the NYMEX, light sweet crude oil futures for delivery in May were up 0.77% and trading at USD93.41 a barrel, while heating oil futures for May delivery were down 1.59% at USD2.9561 per gallon.
Courtesy : investing.com

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