Gold price pressured by stronger dollar, focus on risky assets

31/03/2015 08:08 AST

The gold price stayed below the $1,200 with a stronger dollar weighing and more focus on risk assets this week.

Spot gold price was last seen at $1,181.70, about $5 lower than where it ended on Monday. Silver was lower too, declining almost 30 cents to the current $16.44 per ounce.

The release of better-than-expected data in the US overnight helped to buoy the dollar, in turn pressuring the precious metal.

Pending home sales far bettered expectations of 0.5 percent at 3.1 percent, as did personal income figures at 0.4 percent.

The dollar has sustained its higher position and was last seen at 1.0794 against the euro.

The stronger data also helped US equities to end in the green overnight – the three key indices, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S & P 500 were all up between 1.1 to 1.5 percent.

Comments made by the governor of the People’s Bank of China on the potential for additional monetary stimulus helped equity markets, especially Chinese stocks, to start the week on a positive note as well. Further announcement of a loosening policy to support the Chinese property markets further propped up stocks today.

“Speculation of additional policy easing in China supported global equities and risk appetite, which likely weighed on gold,” said a research note from HSBC Securities.

The PGMs fell together with gold, with palladium hitting a one-year low on Monday. The metal slipped to $723 per ounce yesteday, its lowest since February 2014. Current prices are stagnant at $730 where it ended yesteday.

Platinum was lower as well, dipping $7 to $1,114 per ounce currently.

“Platinum faces an important support level around $1,100 per ounce. Based on fundamentals, we believe this level should hold but investor sentiment is negative and be more influential short term, than underlying fundamentals,” HSBC Securities’ analyst James Steel said.

The Bullion Desk