Morning Gold & Silver Market Report – 2/20/2014

Ryan Schwimmer

2/20/2014 11:15:44 AM

DATA CONTINUES TO DISAPPOINT; DOLLAR HOLDS FIRM

Precious Metals and U.S. stock futures are moderately lower in early morning trading. Though macroeconomic data has underwhelmed investors recently, the U.S. dollar has held firm this week, keeping a hard ceiling over Gold’s upward momentum. Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann said, “Gold is trading in a tight range. We have seen some profit taking, but it’s finding some support from the weak economic data we’ve had, so overall there’s a balance here.” The yellow metal is finding support from Asian buyers on price dips.

Chinese manufacturing is experiencing a contraction, according to data released this morning. Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, wrote, “If you were thinking that the recent increase in lending by the (People’s Bank of China) has changed the arena, then clearly investors have misplaced their optimism, because the Chinese PMI data came earlier and today’s data, are sharply skewed towards the weak economic growth.” Aslam also mentioned that a potential spike in U.S. interest rates hinted at in yesterday’s release of January’s Federal Reserve minutes is also weighing on stocks.

At 9 a.m. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,317.20, Down $5.20.
• Silver, $21.74, Down $0.18.
• Platinum, $1,415.50, Down $11.00.
• Palladium, $736.00, Down $0.40.

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