Silver & Gold Prices Rise 1% for 6th Weekly Gain as Stocks Drop with Commodities
Friday, 7/11/2014 14:22
GOLD PRICES held in a tight $5 range Friday in London, nearing the weekend above $1335 per ounce for a 1% weekly rise.
Trading above $21.40 per ounce silver also headed for its 6th weekly gain in a row, and also of 1% from last Friday's finish.
Eurozone stockmarkets meanwhile held flat after Thursday's sharp losses, keeping Germany's Dax on track for a 3.5% weekly drop.
Shares in Banco Espirito Santo (ELI:BES) rallied 3% in Lisbon however after the executive committee said the possible €1.2 billion accounting hole at a subsidiary bank "does not compromise compliance with the regulatory capital requirements."
BES stock dropped nearly one-fifth on Thursday before trading was halted.
Commodity prices fell again Friday, and crude oil headed for its 3rd weekly loss in succession.
Ten-year US Treasury yields ticked lower as prices rose, pushing yields down to 2.51% – half a percent below where they stood when the US Federal Reserve began "tapering" its QE bond-buying scheme in December.
"Continued monetary easing, accompanied by asset price inflation...causes some apprehension that should bring investors back into the [gold] market," says Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Widmer, raising his 2014 average gold price forecast slightly to $1308 per ounce.
Dollar gold prices have so far averaged $1293 per ounce this year.
This month's continued rise in gold prices "is going to attract more technical interest," says US broker INTL FCStone, pointing to momentum traders.
"Investors found yet another reason to flock to gold" in the Portuguese banking news, says Commerzbank's commodity team.
"There is also a geopolitical dimension," adds London market-making bank HSBC's James Steel, noting the death-toll in Gaza.
Up to 30 Ukrainian soldiers were today reported dead in a rocket-attack by pro-Russian separatists in the country's east.
The London Bullion Market Association meantime announced a winner in its search for a continuation of the Silver Fix – the daily silver price started in 1897 but due to end mid-August for a lack of participants.
The joint bid from futures exchange the CME and data providers Thomson Reuters found "a clear market consensus" said LBMA chief executive Ruth Crowell, with market-making members of the Association inviting the pair to provide a price platform, methodology, administration and governance.
"If the new Silver Fix is seen as a clear success," says French bank Natixis' Nic Brown – quoted by Bloomberg, which also bid for the role – "then that might encourage calls for it to be used as a blueprint for a new Gold Fix."
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