Gold Price Steady, Silver Price Hits Six Week Highs
New York (Oct 6) COMEX Gold futures ended nearly unaltered yesterday as massive gains in US stockscapped gains. Global equities surged around 1.5% - 2% on the day. DOW soared 300 points or1.84% following continued buying after the latest nonfarm payrolls as traders reassessedtheir stance about the probable Fed interest rate hike. COMEX Gold soared following this,adding around 2% on Friday but witnessed upside pressure Monday amid all around gains inequities. The commodity continues to trade in a choppy manner today, hovering just under$1140 per ounce mark. MCX Gold futures for December ended just under Rs 26400 per 10 gramsmark yesterday. COMEX Silver also soared to six week highs above $16.60 per ounceyesterday. MCX Silver futures ended above Rs 36700 per kg mark following this.
Gold speculator and large futures traders increased their gold bullish positions higherlast week for a second consecutive week and to the highest level since June, according tothe latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures TradingCommission (CFTC) on Friday. The non-commercial futures contracts of Comex gold futures,traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +76,645 contractsin the data reported through September 29th. This was a weekly change of +15,520 contractsfrom the previous week’s total of +61,125 net contracts that was registered onSeptember 22nd.
The rise in the weekly net speculator positions (+15,520 net contracts) was due to asmall gain in the weekly bullish positions by +712 contracts which combined with a largedecrease in the weekly bearish positions by -14,808 contracts. The net speculatorcontracts are now at the highest bullish position since June 23rd when net positionsequaled +95,114 contracts. In the commercial positions for gold on the week, thecommercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) addedto their overall bearish positions to a net total position of -73,143 contracts throughSeptember 29th. This was a weekly change of -15,915 contracts.
Gold rallied on Friday, jumping nearly 2% as the US employers added 142,000 workers inSeptember, much lower than the 200,000 figures markets largely expected, and hired fewerpeople in July and August than previously thought. The unemployment rate stayed at 5.1%but the moderation in the recent jobs figures augured as a sign that the cautious stanceof the US Fed in keeping rates at near zero percent is being justified and the US centralbank could take into account these numbers when it meets again to ponder about its firstinterest rate hike in nearly once decade.
Source: HFL
