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Thursday, April 26, 2012

gold futures prices april 27 2012

gold futures prices april 27 2012 : Gold struggled to make headway on Friday as the downgrading of Spain's credit rating fuelled concerns about the debt-stricken euro zone, while a stronger dollar after the Bank of Japan eased policy added to the pressure.

Bullion, which has mostly been tracking riskier assets, hit a two-week high at $1,660.60 on Thursday on upbeat U.S. housing data and the tailwind of the U.S. Federal Reserve's brighter economic outlook and pledge to use more easing should the economy deteriorate.

But the global economic picture remains murky, with euro zone economic sentiment falling more than expected in April and the U.S. job market recovery showing signs of a slowdown.

"Europe has more near-term challenges than the U.S," said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. "The U.S. data will probably be weaker than market expectations, but the focus will still be the uncertainty in Europe."

Standard & Poor's on Thursday cut its credit rating on Spain by two notches, citing its expectation the government's budget deficit will deteriorate even more than previously thought due to economic contraction.

Spot gold inched down 0.1 percent to $1,655.29 an ounce by 0331 GMT, on course for a 0.8-percent weekly gain. U.S. gold lost 0.3 percent to $1,656.30.

Friesen said the trend of accommodative monetary policy should help support gold sentiment, although a strong dollar could curb gains.

The dollar index edged up 0.3 percent, after posting three straight sessions of losses as the Fed said it will be ready to launch more monetary easing to aid the economic recovery. The Spain downgrade knocked the euro off a 3-1/2-week high against the dollar.

Bank of Japan said it will expand the size of fund for asset buying by 10 trillion yen to 40 trillion yen, expecting the new easing measure to help Japan's economy return to sustainable growth.

Trading interest was thin in Asia's physical gold market, as gold has failed to break beyond the range that it has held forover a month.

"We saw some liquidation of long positions but overall not much is happening," said a Singapore-based dealer. "People have become sick of trading in the same range."

Dealers expect physical buying interest to emerge if prices fall to the $1,620 level.

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