Commodity Blog

Gold dipped today as investors continue to count on strong economic growth in the United States and subsequent tightening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve. Other precious metals demonstrated even bigger losses. The Department of Labor reported that initial claims for jobless benefits fell from 295,000 to 287,000 last week even though economists promised an increase. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release nonfarm payrolls tomorrow, and analysts expect the report to show robust growth of US employment.

Geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, Middle East and Hong-Kong provide limited support for the bullion as a safe haven. Yet this support did not really help prices that almost erased this year’s gains. Gold had an excellent start of the year but entered a downtrend since the beginning of August.

December futures for gold fell 0.17 percent to $1,213.40 per troy ounce as of 20:03 GMT on COMEX today. Contract for silver lost as much as 1.30 percent to $17.04 per ounce. Spot price for platinum slid 1.16 percent to $1,268.25 per ounce, and price for palladium tumbled 1.30 percent to $768.09 per ounce.

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