Gold Prices Hold Steady Ahead of U.S. GDP

Investing.com – Gold prices held steady in early morning European trade on Friday as investors looked ahead to U.S. data on first quarter economic growth.

Comex slipped $0.80, or 0.06%, at $1,317.100 a troy ounce by 3:33AM ET (7:34GMT).

The preliminary reading of first-quarter U.S. GDP at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT) is expected to show the economy expanded , down from the fourth quarter growth of 2.9%.

Despite the slowdown, the U.S. economy is currently in its second longest economic expansion since World War II.

Analysts believe that the first quarter data is unlikely to have much of an impact on Federal Reserve policymakers’ plans for gradual tightening given the expected boost over the coming months from the Trump administration tax cuts.

Also on the economic docket, the University of Michigan will publish its revision of for April at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT). A slight uptick to 98.0 from the initial reading of 97.8 is the consensus forecast.

Meanwhile, the between North Korea and South Korea on Friday morning tamed the geopolitical tensions in East Asia.

Deemed as a safe-haven asset, gold attracts demand in times of elevated geopolitical risks, and vice versa. As inter-Korean relations seemed to improve, it eased geopolitical concerns and investors turned to risk assets instead.

Although the precious metal appeared to be in “pause” mode ahead of the data on Friday, gold is on track for weekly losses of around 1.5% as the precious metal has been weighed down by weighed down by a strong dollar, high U.S. Treasury yields and easing geo-political concerns.

In other metals trading, lost 4.1 cents, or 0.3%, at $16.450 a troy ounce by 3:33AM ET (7:34GMT).

traded down 0.3% to $976.05 an ounce. Sister metal slid 0.4% at $906.70.

In base metals, fell 0.7% to $3.092 a pound.

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