Gold Price Slightly Down As Greenback Lifted After ECB Meeting

New York (Oct 26)  Gold prices are a bit lower in early U.S. trading Thursday. The yellow metal is seeing some selling pressure after the U.S. dollar index rallied following the results of meeting of the European Central Bank. December Comex gold was last down $2.00 an ounce at $1,277.00. December Comex silver was last up $0.02 at $16.945 an ounce.

Thursday’s European Central Bank regular monetary policy meeting resulted in no interest rate changes from the ECB. However, the central bank said it is reducing its monthly bond-buying program amount by half, but is extending the timeframe of the bond buying. This outcome was about what the marketplace expected. Still, the Euro currency saw a moderate sell off and the U.S. dollar gained on the news.

Now, market watchers are awaiting ECB Chief Mario Draghi’s press conference.

The key “outside markets” on Thursday morning find the U.S. dollar index higher after the ECB meeting. Meantime, Nymex crude oil futures prices are also near unchanged and trading just above $52.00 a barrel.

The most important U.S. economic report of the week is Friday morning’s advance third-quarter GDP estimate. The number is expected to come in at up 2.7% versus the second-quarter reading of up 3.1%.

U.S. economic data due for release Thursday includes the weekly jobless claims report, the advance economic indicators report, pending home sales, and the Kansas City Federal Reserve manufacturing survey..]

Technically, December gold futures bulls and bears are on a level overall near-term technical playing field but the bears have some downside momentum. Bulls’ next upside technical objective is pushing and closing prices above chart resistance at $1,300.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is closing prices below solid technical support at the October low of $1,262.80.

KitcoNew