Gold Ends Tues Higher as Traders Watch for Fed Statement; Silver Falls, House Prices Sink

From Chris Mullen at GoldSeek.com...

Gold rose roughly $5 per ounce to trade either side of $890 in London on Tuesday, before it dipped to $882.40 by mid-morning in New York.

The Gold Market then quickly rose back to a new session high of $894.00, before closing $5 with a gain of 0.48%.

Silver rose over 1% to $16.95 by late trade in Asia, but it then fell back off for most of the rest of trade and ended near its low of $16.58 with a loss of 0.72%.

The Gold Price in Euros remained at €570, platinum lost $20 to $2018.5, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $3.79.

Gold and silver equities rose roughly 0.5% about an hour into trade and remained at about that level for much of the day, but they then fell back off in the last hour of trade and ended about 1% lower.

US Consumer Confidence for June was reported markedly down at a 16-year low. Also making news was the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, showing US real estate in 20 cities dropped 15.3% in April from a year earlier.

Wednesday at 14:30 GMT brings the Durable Goods Orders report for May (expected flat) and then New Home Sales for May (expected at 510,000).

At 20:15 GMT comes the Federal Reserve interest rate decision and – more crucially this month, given the 100% likelihood rates won't change – the accompanying Policy Statement. Traders will be closely watching for clues about what the Fed may do later in the year.

Back in Tuesday's action crude oil ended slightly higher after a seesaw session as traders waited for the Fed meeting and also Wednesday's US stockpile inventory reports.

The US Dollar index fell and Treasuries rose on the housing and consumer confidence news. A two-year note auction drew pretty good demand.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell roughly 1% by midmorning on disappointing economic data before they rebounded to find modest gains by mid-afternoon on bargain hunting. All three indices fell back off by the close and ended slightly lower.

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