Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Gold Supported by Fundamentals as Bernanke Testimony "Shows QE Has Long Way to Go"

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013 Feb 27, 2013 - 01:30 PM GMT

By: Ben_Traynor

Commodities

U.S. DOLLAR gold bullion prices fell slightly in Wednesday morning's London trading, but held above the $1600 per ounce level it rallied above yesterday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that that Fed's ongoing quantitative easing policy "is providing important support to the recovery" and that the benefits "are clear".


Stock markets also posted gains this morning, making up some ground lost yesterday, while commodities were broadly flat and longer-dated US Treasuries gained.

Like gold, silver eased lower this morning but held above $29 an ounce by lunchtime in London.

In his testimony to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Bernanke added "inflation expectations appear well anchored" and that the Fed does not expect to see "the development of significant inflation pressures".

Bernanke also reiterated the importance of keeping the federal funds rate close to zero.

"Keeping long-term interest rates low has helped spark a recovery in the housing market and has led to increased sales and production of automobiles and other durable goods," he said.

On the New York Comex the number of gold put options, which rise in value as gold falls below a given strike price, rose to a record following the publication of the latest Fed policy meeting minutes last week, according to news agency Bloomberg.

Following Bernanke's testimony yesterday however "the market is a little less concerned about a premature exit of quantitative easing, which would be bad for gold," says Nick Trevethan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ.

"Don't forget that the Fed's focus is on jobs and inflation. The job market has stabilized, but we are not seeing efficient job growth to make the exit of QE look imminent. There is still a long way to go."

Britain's economy meantime grew by 0.3% in 2012, according to the second estimate of fourth quarter gross domestic product published by the Office for National Statistics Wednesday, which revised last year's growth estimate up from zero. The Q4 contraction of 0.3% reported in the first estimate however remains unchanged, while government spending rose 0.6% over the quarter and 2.6% over the year as a whole.

"Government spending can't be sustained at that level," says Deutsche Bank economist George Buckley, "so an important part of economic growth is actually going to be taken away and the risk is that exports remain negative and that consumption weakens because of higher inflation."

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has discussed the possibility of setting negative interest rates, MPC member and BoE deputy governor Paul Tucker told the Treasury Committee yesterday.

Holdings of bullion held to back gold exchange traded funds meantime are on course for their biggest calendar month drop since April 2008, according to data tracked by Bloomberg.

"The [gold] market has lost increasing support this year in line with other perceived 'safe havens' such as the Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc and US Treasuries," says a note from Deutsche Bank this morning.

"We expect gold returns will eventually recover although this will most likely require a moderation in growth expectations and with it a correction in global equity and interest rate markets."

"The fundamental background for gold remains reasonably supportive," adds a note from Credit Suisse.

"It is rather that potential gold investors consider other classes more attractive...investors have the tendency to buy less of the precious metal in an environment where growth is stabilizing."

Gold bullion imports worth $2.7 billion contributed to Thailand's record trade deficit last month, the country's Commerce Ministry revealed Wednesday. Over the whole of 2012 demand for gold from Thailand was worth $4.3 billion, according to latest World Gold Council figures.

The volume of gold imported by Thailand rose 133% year-on-year, Ministry figures show, although its report did not include figures for gold exports.

Last week India, the world's biggest source of private gold demand, banned imports of gold jewelry from Thailand unless the authorities can be satisfied that the work in making the jewelry had added at least 20% to its value over and above that of the bullion content.

India last month raised its import duty on gold to 6%, although a trade agreement with Thailand meant that gold imported from there was only subject to a duty of 1%.

By Ben Traynor
BullionVault.com

Gold price chart, no delay   |   Buy gold online at live prices

Editor of Gold News, the analysis and investment research site from world-leading gold ownership service BullionVault, Ben Traynor was formerly editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the UK's longest-running investment letter. A Cambridge economics graduate, he is a professional writer and editor with a specialist interest in monetary economics.(c) BullionVault 2013

Please Note: This article is 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.

Ben Traynor Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in