BULLION LATEST 11/12: Gold price little changed amid firm dollar

The spot gold price was recently quoted at $1248.25-1248.65 per oz, up by $0.20 as of 11.49am Shanghai time. Trade has ranged from $1247.05-1249.15 so far today.

• The dollar held steady during early Asian trade on Monday with expectations of higher US interest rates and healthy data from the United States underpinning the currency.
• The dollar index was down by 0.02% at 93.84 as of 12.00pm Shanghai time – it had reached as high as 94.09 on Friday, which was its highest since November 22.
• In US data on Friday, positive employment growth hit 86 straight months with non-farm employment change results showing 228,000 Americans joined the labor market, above the forecast of 198,000. But the unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.1% and average hourly earnings disappointed with a 0.2% gain.
• “The jobs report showed that hiring increased more than expected in November, while the unemployment rate held at a 17-year low. Expectations for a rate hike at this week’s FOMC (US Federal Open Market Committee) meeting weighed on investor appetite for gold,” ANZ Research said on Monday.
• “With the US dollar generally in the ascendant, and with an almost guaranteed rate hike from the FOMC this week, gold will likely find few friends in today’s trading session,” Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda said.
• “Gold is unchanged this morning unsurprisingly as attention in Asia is drawn to cryptocurrencies as opposed to the real world. We have resistance at $1,253.00 [per oz] and then the long-term breakout at $1,260.00. On a more positive note, gold has traced out a double bottom at $1,243.30 which will offer interim support. After that, the technicals show nothing but clear air until near the $1,200.00 area,” Halley added.

Silver, PGMs

• In the other precious metals, the spot silver price was up by $0.005 to $15.830-15.850 per oz.
• Platinum was up by $6 to $888-893 per oz, and palladium increased $4 to $1,006-$1,011 per oz.
• On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, gold for June delivery was recently at 272.30 yuan ($41.1) per gram and the June silver was at 3,742 yuan per kg.

Currency moves and data releases

• The dollar index was down by 0.02% at 93.84 as of 12.00pm Shanghai time.
• In other commodities, the Brent crude oil spot price was down by 0.42% to $63.05 per barrel, and the Texas light sweet crude oil spot price decreased by 0.42% to $57.03.
• In equities, the Shanghai Composite was up by 0.41% to 3,303.40.
• Chinese data released overnight on Friday showed the country’s consumer inflation slowed more than expected in November with a gain of 1.7%, compared with an expected increase of 1.8%. Meanwhile, Chinese producer prices rose 5.8% from a year earlier, compared with the previous month’s rise of 6.9%, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
• The economic agenda is very light today with only Jolts job openings from the US of note.