Mid-Day Gold & Silver Market Report – 4/2/2013

Brandi Brundidge

4/2/2013 12:26:00 PM

GOLD DROPS 1 PERCENT; U.S. STOCKS AND EQUITIES RALLY

Gold has fallen today as the U.S. dollar strengthened compared to the euro and investors showed interest in riskier assets.  “You have a rally in equities and strength in the dollar and that seems to be the focus right now, which is putting gold in the back seat,” HSBC analyst Howard Wen said. “It has been the case since the start of the year where you mostly have risk-on sentiment, while concerns about Cyprus, which is positive for Gold, seem to have eased.”  Both the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have policy meetings set for Thursday, which the market will watch closely for any indications for future changes. 

U.S. stocks are on the rise today as weak manufacturing data for March came out of the eurozone.  The market drive to stocks and equities pushed both Treasury and Gold prices down, with a 1 percent drop for the yellow metal.  “We expect eurozone fundamentals to deteriorate further – this combined with outflow pressures should keep the euro's downward trend intact,” Scotiabank’s Chief Currency Strategist Camilla Sutton said.  There is expected movement in U.S. equities with Friday’s highly anticipated March payrolls report.  “We do, however, expect shares to wax and wane throughout the remainder of the week as investors grow nervous in the run up to the U.S. jobs number on Friday,” London’s Interactive Investor’s Head of Derivatives Mike McCudden said.

At 1:06 p.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,575.70, Down $26.20.
• Silver, $27.28, Down $0.75.
• Platinum, $1,572.50, Down $24.80.
• Palladium, $768.50, Down $14.50.

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