Shifting the Attention from Gold to Equities
The U.S. Comex gold futures rose on Thursday by 0.71 percent to
$1,392.50. Week-to-Thursday, the gold futures are down 7.25 percent
while year-to-date, the prices are down 16.91 percent. Gold has
returned 17 percent per year in the previous ten years. However, the
gold futures entered into a bear market on 12 April as the big sell-off
began. The S&P 500 index fell 2.09 percent in the past two days
while the Euro Stoxx 50 index also dropped 2.06 percent. The Dollar
Index rose 0.30 percent this week with the Euro/Dollar dropping 0.47
percent and the Yen rising 0.20 percent against the Dollar. The CRB
Commodity index suffered a loss of 1.50 percent this week.
Stocks Declined as Gold Rebounded
Market’s concerns have shifted to equities after the gold’s downturn.
Bloomberg highlighted that the U.S. stocks peaked in April in the past
three years and declined for the next two to six months. The sentiment
towards stocks and commodities has been weak as economic data from the
U.S. and China were weaker than expected while some earnings results
were disappointing. The U.S. leading indicators index, a gauge for the
economy in the next three to six months, dropped 0.1 percent in March
compared to an expected increase of 0.1 percent. The expansion at both
the Philadelphia and the New York regions cooled in April with
inventories plunging.
Debates on Gold
After the gold price plunge, the Chinese, Indian and Thai retail buyers
rushed to buy gold. The April U.S. Mint sales more than doubled from
March to April while the Australia’s Perth Mint saw its sales doubled in
one week. Central banks are watching closely the price level to
re-enter even though some bank analysts are calling for gold prices to
go towards $1,000. The gold-backed ETP holdings declined by 2.41
percent this week to 2,348 metric tons and dropped 10.8 percent this
year. A stronger dollar remains a danger for gold.
What to Watch
The important events and data to watch next week will include the April
“Flash” manufacturing PMI from China, the E17 and the U.S. on 23 April,
the April Germany IFO business climate index and the March U.S. durable
goods orders on 24 April, and the Bank of Japan policy rate meeting on
26 April.
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19 Apr 2013 | Categories: Gold
