Gold prices ended the U.S. day session a bit lower Wednesday, on some mild profit taking from recent gains that pushed the market to a six-week high on Tuesday. Bullish “outside markets” today limited selling pressure in the gold and silver markets. The U.S. dollar index was lower and crude oil prices were higher. December Comex gold was last down $2.60 an ounce at $1,276.80. September Comex silver was last down $0.074 at $16.69 an ounce.
A new record high set in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Wednesday, above 22,000, also likely limited buying interest in the safe-haven gold market. Still, the gold market bulls should be happy their metal has performed fairly well the past couple weeks, amid record highs scored in the major U.S. stock indexes.
Traders and investors are now awaiting what is arguably the most important U.S. economic report of the month that comes out Friday morning: the July employment report from the Labor Department. The key non-farm payrolls component of that report is forecast to show a rise of 180,000 workers. The ADP national employment report for July, released Wednesday morning, showed a rise of 178,000 jobs, which was just below the consensus forecast of up 180,000.
The U.S. dollar index was solidly lower Wednesday and hit another 13-month low. The slumping greenback has been a bullish underlying element for the precious metals. Just recently, it seems many raw commodity markets are waking up to the fact the dollar index has been declining most of this year, and those markets have seen some upside price action that has been helped by the weaker dollar.
Source: Forbes
