Wednesday, 18 November 2015 02:22
NEW YORK/LONDON: Gold prices fell more than 1 percent to the lowest price in nearly six years on Tuesday, pressured by expectations that the United States will raise interest rates in December, and as the dollar rose and stocks rebounded from losses suffered after Friday’s attacks in Paris.
The other precious metals followed gold down, with silver dropping for the fourteenth straight session to a 2-1/2-month low and platinum tapping a seven-year low. Spot gold was down 1 percent at $ 1,071.96 an ounce at 3:19 p.m. EST (2019 GMT), after falling to $ 1,065.18, the lowest since February 2010.
US gold futures for December delivery settled down 1.4 percent at $ 1,068.60.
“The euro’s on the defensive, the equity markets have done okay and (there are) expectations of a rate rise,” said James Steel, chief metals analyst at HSBC Securities in New York.
Bullion prices have fallen for 14 out of the past 15 sessions under pressure from expectations that the US Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
That would lift the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold while boosting the dollar.
Data showing that US consumer prices rose in October after two months of declines fed into those expectations.
“If inflation starts picking up, the Fed will be feeling a lot more stable with their future rate hike approach,” Ava Trade analyst Naeem Aslam said. “The US rate hike is still the major denominator for the gold price.” Shares in major markets rallied, while the US dollar and Treasury yields rose as firming inflation backed expectations of an impending interest rate hike.
“We believe that gold will face further headwinds in the next few weeks as an extension of euro zone quantitative easing is announced in December, thus pushing up the dollar against the euro and other major currencies, and as the market fully prices in a mid-December Fed rate rise,” Mitsubishi said in a note. Silver fell 0.1 percent to $ 14.08, the lowest since late August. “I think it’s a handmaiden to gold.
In a period where gold is in this slump it’s very difficult for silver to rally, even if the physical demand seems quite good,” Steel said. Spot platinum was down 1.7 percent at $ 845 an ounce, the lowest since December 2008, having fallen 16 out of the past 18 sessions. Palladium fell 1.5 percent to $ 540 an ounce.
