AFP: Gold Slides As US Dollar Shakes Off Disappointing US Data After Euro Slips
Gold prices increased yesterday, reaching above US$1,140/oz after the US Dollar weakened following lacklustre updates from the Commerce Department and Labor Department, which said that retail sales unexpectedly slid 0.2% year on year in December, while jobless claims increased by 11,000 to 444,000 in the week to 9 January.
However, the US Dollar later gained strength against the euro today after the European currency got hit by rumors of a possible resignation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which were later denied by the government., as well as the weakness of the Greek economy, which was the main issue of the European Central Bank’s yesterday’s policy meeting. These cureency movements weakened gold and other precious metals, pushing them back down to erase recent gains.
Gold slipped back to US$1,135/oz, while silver and platinum slid to US$18.52/oz and US$1,609/oz respectively.
The direction for the American currency will be set later today when investment bank JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) releases its Q4 report.
Mining stocks were mixed today. Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) outperformed the blue chip mining stocks with a small gain. Fellow FTSE 100 constituents silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) and platinum producer Lonmin (LSE: LMI) declined marginally.
Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) was flat.
In the FTSE 250, Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) posted a small loss, while gold miner Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG) and silver producer Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) both advanced 1.6%.
Fiji focused gold miner Vatukoula Gold Mines (AIM: VGM) led the small caps with a 12.5% surge. South American based explorer Mariana Resources (AIM: MARL) followed with a 4.5% climb, while Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) and Philippines focused gold producer Medusa Mining (AIM&ASX: MML) tacked on more than 3%.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia operating gold explorer KEFI Minerals (AIM: KEF) and Kyrgyzstan focused gold explorer and developer Chaarat Gold Holdings (AIM: CGH) were in decline, sliding 6% and 5% respectively.
