Daily Gold & Silver Market Report–2/19/2016

Jennifer Carter

2/19/2016 10:11:00 AM

GOLD STEADY AS STOCK MARKET LOWERS; OIL SET FOR WEEKLY INCREASE

Spot Gold was steady at $1,231.51 an ounce Friday morning, little changed from $1,231.95 late Thursday. The metal remained steady on expectations that low interest rates will persist.  Turmoil in the market has investors thinking the Federal Reserve will not hike interest rates further this year.  Gold overall is nearly 16 percent higher than at the start of the year.  "Gold moved up pretty sharply, and a period of reflection and sideways trading would seem appropriate," Bank of Nova Scotia head of Precious Metals Simon Weeks said. "As a safe haven, it is definitely coming into play again. We've had negative interest rate announcements around the world... so perhaps people felt they'd got a little ahead of themselves in terms of their optimism about the economic recovery."

Oil prices are set for their first weekly increase for February, despite sliding Friday. Oil prices rose more than 14 percent earlier this week on Saudi Arabia and Russia's agreement to freeze production at January levels. However, not everyone agrees capping is enough to end the glut in the market. "If other producers want to limit or agree to a freeze in terms of additional production, that may have an impact on the market, but Saudi Arabia is not prepared to cut production," Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told Agence France-Presse in an interview Thursday.

At 10.12  A.M. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,223.90 Up $5.60
• Silver, $15.44 Down $0.04
• Platinum, $945.50 Down $0.10
• Palladium, $503.90 Down $1.90

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