This Friday in European trading hours, gold futures declined further. In respond to the weaker US stock futures and stronger dollar, the yellow metal’s prices fell below the key level of $1,550 per ounce.
By 10:49 GMT gold futures for June delivery tumbled down by 0.8 percent to $1,548.50 per ounce. With a third drop in a row, the contract headed for a 2% decline this week.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange in Thursday, gold closed the session with a 0.4% jump, gaining $6.10 to trade at $1,564.90 per ounce.
During the week, June gold recorded gains two times and two times losses. Today’s decline is even trying to surpass the 1.8% fall with a loss of $27.90 recorded on Wednesday. That was the largest price and percentage daily decline for a contract since November 2012.
Crude oil prices and US stock market futures also lost some ground today. The losses were triggered by US retail sales and producer prices for March scheduled for release later that day.
The concerns over the Euro Zone are gaining momentum at the end of the week. This Friday the president of troubled Cyprus announced another assistance request from the Union. According to speculations the extra bailout would cost more than it is expected. According to authorities report from Germany, the bailout size is not under dispute. In order to aid its rescue plan Cyprus has agreed to its gold reserves excess.
One the greatest gold bear risks are the ongoing step out of gold exchange-traded products. So far this year ETF have recorded 202 tons of outflows. In 2012 the exchange-traded market reached influx of 279 tons. The contrast in trends is obvious.
Goldman Sachs’ forecast cuts also affected the gold investors’ position. The updated outlook expects a yellow metal price of $1,545 per ounce in 2013. This is a serious drop from the previous projection of $1,610 per ounce. In addition the prior edition of Fed’s meeting minutes gave no clear sign when the quantitative stimulus is going to end.
