Gold Futures Lifted By Soft Stocks And Dollar Index

New York (Dec 27)  Renewed weakness in equities and a soft U.S. dollar are helping gold bounce back from a late-Wednesday profit-taking pullback.

As of 9:10 a.m. EST Thursday, Comex February gold was $4.90 higher at $1,277.90 an ounce. March silverwas up 14.7 cents to $15.27.

The metal hit a multi-month high Wednesday before pulling back. Daniel Pavilonis, senior commodities broker with RJO Futures, said the late-Wednesday retreat was selling in the form of profit-taking and also a response to the sharp bounce in the U.S. stock market.

Early Thursday, however, stock-index futures were back on the defensive.

“Maybe that is giving it [gold] a little upside,” Pavilonis told Kitco News. “The dollar is down, so that’s also helping a bit.”

The March U.S. dollar index was down 0.258 point to 96.310. Ahead of the stock-market open on Wall Street, the futures contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 350 points.

Spot gold was up $5 to $1,278 an ounce after hitting its highest level in half a year on Wednesday. The metal is basically at chart resistance, and a break above this likely would accelerate the gains in gold, said MKS (Switzerland) S.A.

“Gold has been tracking steadily higher through December,” MKS says. “If it can push through the band of resistance between $1,270-80 we may see a move on the $1,300 level. On the low side, there appears to be good support at $1,265, and we expect plenty of buying interest round the 200 DMA [200-day moving average] at $1,251.”

KitcoNews