(Kitco News) - Gold prices are modestly higher in early U.S. trading Tuesday. Some safe-haven demand is featured as there is a bit more risk aversion in the market place. August Comex gold was last up $3.60 at $1,306.70 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $3.30 at $1,307.25. December Comex silver last traded up $0.079 at $20.705 an ounce.
There are geopolitical rumblings impacting trading early Tuesday. The European Union and U.S. are slapping new sanctions on Russia. Meantime, the Israel-Hamas conflict appears not to be de-escalating. These matters helped to pressure world stock markets overnight. The German 10-year bund yield fell to a record low Tuesday, on the safe-haven moves by investors and traders. Meantime, U.S. Treasury bond prices are hovering near their recent contract high and the U.S. dollar index is hovering near a 5.5-month high that was scored last Friday.
The market place is also focused on the big slate of U.S. economic data on tap this week. The headliners include the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the key U.S. employment report on Friday. The U.S. second-quarter GDP report is also out on Wednesday. It’s likely the aforementioned reports will have a significant price impact on many markets, in the immediate aftermath of their release times.
U.S. economic data due for release Tuesday includes the weekly Johnson Redbook and Goldman Sachs retail sales reports, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, and the consumer confidence index.
Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating: 7.0 (Geopolitics are at play in the market place, but for now traders and investors are also a bit numb to those matters.)
(Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating is your way to quickly gauge investor risk appetite in the world market place each day. Each day I assess the “risk-on” or “risk-off” trader mentality in the market place with a numerical reading of 1 to 10, with 1 being least risk-averse (most risk-on) and 10 being the most risk-averse (risk-off), and 5 being neutral.
The London A.M. gold fix is $1,307.50 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,304.50.
Technically, August gold futures bears still have the slight near-term technical advantage as a three-week-old downtrend is in place on the daily bar chart. The gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,325.90. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at last week’s low of $1,287.50. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,312.10 and then at $1,320.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,303.20 and then at $1,300.00.
December silver futures bears have the slight near-term technical advantage as prices are in a three-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of $21.21 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below major technical support at $20.00. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $20.91 and then at $21.00. Next support is seen at Monday’s low of $20.62 and then at $20.50.
By Jim Wyckoff, contributing to Kitco News; jwyckoff@kitco.com
Follow me on Twitter @jimwyckoff
