Gold futures pulled back on Wednesday as investors dipped a toe back in global stock markets and bid up the traditional riskier currencies, snubbing the haven metal as flaring worries about Italy-triggered instability for the European Union cooled a touch.
August gold
GCQ8, -0.18%
fell $2.60, or 0.2%, to $1,301.50 an ounce. Prices based on the most-active contracts have drifted a hair above the closely watched $1,300 line, underpinned slightly by the Italy scenario, trade-talk uncertainty and North Korean diplomacy, after hitting a fresh low for 2018 earlier in May.
Read: Rising angst around global politics doesn’t move gold like it used to
Italy’s stocks and bonds, as well as the euro, were all in recovery mode, and U.S. stock futures were taking part in the advance. Italy’s two biggest antiestablishment parties — the 5 Star Movement and the League — were again in talks to form a coalition government after an earlier agreement was effectively unwound by Italy’s president this week, according to reports on Wednesday.
The euro
EURUSD, +0.8665%
rose to $1.1597 from $1.1541 late Tuesday in New York, helping to send the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY, -0.53%
lower. Gold and the dollar often diverge, but they were both trending slightly lower Wednesday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y, +3.67%
was around 2.84%. On Tuesday, the U.S. benchmark rate tumbled 16 basis points to 2.77%, in its largest one-day drop since the Brexit vote in June 2016.
On the economic front, ADP employment data for May is slated to be released at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by revised first-quarter gross domestic product data and advance trade in goods for April at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
Check out: MarketWatch’s Economic Calendar
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book is due for release at 2 p.m. Eastern, but no Fed officials are slated to deliver speeches on Wednesday.
In other trading, July silver
SIN8, +0.20%
gained 0.1% to $16.390 an ounce, while July copper
HGN8, -0.21%
traded at $3.0485 a pound, down 0.5%. July platinum
PLN8, +0.12%
fell 0.1% to $905.10 an ounce. September palladium
PAU8, +0.35%
rose 0.1% to $972.20 an ounce.
Among exchange-traded funds, the SPDR Gold Shares
GLD, -0.02%
fell 0.2%, as the iShares Silver Trust
SLV, -0.58%
slipped 0.1%. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF
GDX, -0.72%
was near even.
Source : MTV
