Rising Equities Spoil The Party For Gold

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Rising Equities Spoil The Party For Gold

Rising stock markets turned investor attention from safe-haven assets, thus triggering a decline in gold and SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD).

Gold contracts for December delivery dipped to a session low of $1,353.35 a troy ounce on Monday in early trading in Europe. That followed a 0.14% decline in the price of gold for December delivery during Asian trading.

Investors were looking for stocks that were rising in Asia amid waning expectations of a speedy path to interest rate review in the U.S. after the Federal Reserve failed to make a firm commitment at the end of its policy meeting. Shares across Asia soared early Monday save for China’s Shanghai Composite that appeared rattled by spreading fears of a crackdown on speculative trading.

Hopes of more easing measures by global central banks also added to the appeal of equities and further hurt gold trading on Monday. The officials of the Bank of England, the Bank of Thailand and the Reserve Bank of Australia will be meeting the coming days and they are expected to announce interest rate cuts.

Gold trading

Gold prices rose to a $1,362.00 daily peak on Friday after fresh economic data showed that the U.S. GDP grew slower than economists expected in the second-quarter. The GDP expanded only 1.2%, yet economists on the average modeled a growth of 2.6%.

The weaker economic data lowered expectations that the Fed would raise interest rates soon. But investors have turned their attention to the coming central bank stimulus measures, thus raising demand for stocks at the expense of gold.

Despite the Monday pressure on gold, the yellow metal is up nearly 26% so far in 2016.

Other precious metals

Copper contracts for September delivery were seen rising 0.97% to trade at $2.243 a pound in early trading in Europe. Silver futures rose 1.09% to at $20.56 a troy ounce in early trading in London.