Gold Dips Below $1,170 Despite Greek Debt Crisis

Gold Price below $1,170 – On-going Greek Crisis

Price of gold fell recently as the markets anticipated news from euro zone summit speculating whether progress would be made due to the Greek debt crisis, as growing positions in gold underline bearish sentiments towards the precious metal.

In the meantime, China’s foremost stock market closed at 7.4% down the same day and some 18% down from fortnight back since several brokerage houses had tightened their margin trading rules. A data portrayed French and Italian consumer confidence rising though private sector loans from the 19 nation Eurozone increased by only 0.5% annually in May, as stated by the European Central Bank, inspite of 5% growth in the currency union’s broad money supply motivated by the new QE bond buying program of ECB.

 Gold has failed so far to see substantial safe-havenbids due to the on-going Greek crisis and the strength in the dollar has also stopped improvements. Higher prices attempts seem pointless with traders selling into rallies and bringing the prices quickly lower. Spot gold eased 0.1% to $1,168 an ounce by 0630 GMT and the metal increased as much as 0.6% early on Monday followed by Greek rejection on terms of the bailout package.

Investors Concerned – Major Macro Risks

However, it gave up most gains close to 0.2%. On Tuesday, US gold futures dropped to 0.5 percent. The price move indicated the growing evidence that gold cannot hold its weight against the face of market jitters according to an analyst at Phillip Futures, Howie Lee.

He commented that `while that suggest gold has lost some appeal as a safe-haven asset, more importantly it signifies the loss of interest in gold as an investment vehicle. Investor positioning reflected the same, established on US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data on Monday. In the week ending June 30, hedge funds as well as money manager increased their short position to the highest on record.

Non-commercial dealers increased their short positions to a two-year high. While, investors were still net long on gold, a week ago, bullish position fell drastically.However, in terms of transaction, 3 days of strong revenue in the Shanghai Gold Exchange’s domestic kilobar, contract trailed on Friday, by record high volume, with its premium doubling from the previous day to $2.60 per ounce over comparable London quotes.

A London bullion bank had commented that `more people getting involved is a clear sign that investors are concerned about major macro risks – Greece, Europe, China’, adding that the exchange trade trust fund vehicles backed by gold, saw strong inflows on Thursday.

Athens Speculating Proposal for a Deal

The benefit of gold had also been affected by prospects of higher US interest rates later this year which would have increased the demand for the dollar and reduce the appeal of non-interest paying bullion. The weakness in the euro, recently from the Greek crisis has supported the dollar.

Dollar index trading near a one month high was reached on Monday and according to a Sydney based bullion trader, focus was on the euro zone meeting to take place with any Greek debt deal is likely to send gold prices below $1,150.Athens is speculating in bringing a proposal for a deal to the summit after Germany and France informed Greece on Monday, to come up with thoughtful proposals for the purpose of restarting financial aid talks.

Edward Meir, an INTL FCStone analyst stated that `any movement towards an agreement would probably mean that gold’s staying power at current levels will prove to be short-lived’.

Gold Snaps Seven-Day Rally

Gold Dropped – Investors opt for Uncertain Equity Assets

Gold dropped on Friday as investors opted for the uncertain equity assets after some mixed economic data from U.S and the fluctuating dollar. However, gold future gained 1% for the week and the favourite metal continued making strong gains because of its appeal for the past two days even though global equity markets seemed low amidst the confusion in Yemen.

Earlier gold rallied after officials from Federal Reserve officials’ commented that U.S interest rates would stay at zero for some time till September. In the meantime, focus of the investors was on the comments from the Fed Chief Janet Yellen who planned to address the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Conference and would be delivering a note entitled, `The New Normal for Monetary Policy,’ before the close of markets.

Ms Yellen’s speech is planned at 7.45 pm GMT where traders would be listening for some indication on when the Fed would start tightening monetary policy. According to Senior Manager Ole Hansen of Saxo Bank, he states that `Yellen has been accused of being too dovish and probably she wants to react by making her speech sound a little less dovish’.

Adjustment from Ultra-Loss Monetary Policy

The Presidents of the St. Louis Fed and Atlanta Fed, at separate events on Thursday said an adjustment away from ultra-loose monetary policy would be needed due to US economy’s improvement since 2007-09 financial crises. By 3.24 pm GMT, spot gold has eased 0.5% to $1,197.70 an ounce and the metal increased to 2% on Thursday to its highest since March 2 at $1,219.40 due to reaction to tensions in the Middle East.

The gold futures of US fell from $7.90 to $1,196.70 an ounce for April delivery. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and its associates had launched air strikes in Yemen rattling broader markets and backing gold which is usually seen as an assurance against any risk. Julius Baer, head of commodity research Norbert Ruecker commented that `Geopolitics has never been something which could set a trend in gold prices; it only causes a short term deviation from the existing trend’.

Inspite of the Friday’s losses, gold was back on track to finish the week up at 1.3% after its seven day rally and the metal’s longest winning stretch since August 2012.

Holdings Dropped by 6 Tonnes

Gold showed gains after the Fed signalled caution at its policy meeting last week on the pace of interest rate increase prompting the dollar to drop from multiyear high and a violent rate rise path could affect the demand for gold which is a non-interest paying asset.Caution by the investor was obvious as SPDR Gold Trust, which is the world’s largest gold backed exchange traded fund, post outflows continued and holdings dropped nearly by 6 tonnes on Thursday to 737.24 tonnes which was the lowest since January.

As physical demand all over Asia slowed down, the long rally in prices discouraged most of the buyers. Palladium had lost by 3% to a two month decrease of $743.47 an ounce and platinum was low by 1.2% at $1,139.99 an ounce while silver dropped by 0.6% to $16.97 an ounce.

Gold extended its record-breaking rally

The gold reached the record of 1500 dollars an ounce, It has never been a similar rise in the financial markets. With this crisis and expressed fears about the U.S. deficit and debt in Europe, investors prefer to acquire more gold to slow the risks.

It is obvious that holding gold resources does not yield large monetary benefit, but may qualify its holder as a good asset. In times of financial instability, investors are constantly looking for safe way to invest. The gold is the best immediate alternative for them. Hence this is the reason for this recorded historic outbreak in gold rate.

Since most of the global market is unstable this trend may continue and hence more procurement by the investors will lead to more price rise. In our neighboring country China inflation was reached 5.4% as on March 2011and hence their banks are required to increase the reserve and hence there is no immediate down trend in the price of yellow metal. The current crisis and un rest in African and Middle East countries are another main reason for the price raise of the yellow metal.

In relative point of view; the prevailing price of Gold is not expensive compared with the price of 1980 considering the inflation in price in mind. Even the poor man’s gold also rose to certain extent and the metal traders highly praise this metal.


However, all metals are not aware of such enthusiasm from buyers. The platinum price has not changed while that of palladium was down 6%. Their courses have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Gold hits another record

The gold price has again hit a record on Friday, getting closer every day just over a threshold of 1,480 dollars an ounce.

Main factors leading to this historical rise were; the worrying situation of some of the member countries of the European Union beset by serious difficulties with their internal debt and sustained rise in inflation.

The price of an ounce of gold has risen to its latest peak on Friday in the international market, by breaking the previous Monday record.

According to the Analysts the investors in Greece, Portugal remained concerned over the threat of default, a situation that encourages them to buy precious metals, which are the safe-haven assets.

 The debt restructuring in Greek, Ireland also raised the new concerns and hence the raise in the precious metals.

On Friday, ratings agency of France lowered the rating two notches in their country alone.

Another main reason for this rise is; the Investors are alarmed of the signs of runaway inflation. Many European countries afraid, that their local market gold price will be in raise compared with the expected price in China and India. The sovereign debt and the inflations of some of the countries are the main reason behind the rise.

Because of the market instability, threat of default in certain European countries and inflation kept the precious metal price on its present high. You have put eye on the market trend for few more days to predict the trend of the precious metal.