Monday, October 07, 2013

Gold rises even as U.S. shutdown carries on
Gold futures traded higher in the early part of Monday’s Asian session even as the U.S. government shutdown stretches on, applying pressure to riskier assets in the process. 

On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for December delivery rose 0.24% to USD1,313.10 per troy ounce in Asian trading Monday. The December contract settled lower by 0.58% at USD1,309.90 per ounce last Friday. The yellow metal dipped almost 2.2% last week. 

Gold futures were likely to find support at USD1,278.20 a troy ounce, the low from October 2 and resistance at USD1,344.40, the high from September 27. 

Bullion was boosted a bit Monday as the U.S. dollar traded lower against some of its major rivals. Although gold had recently shown signs of a possible rebound in August, September proved to be rough month. Worse yet, October is traditionally a dreadful for gold bulls. Since the 1980s, October is no better than the tenth-best month of the year for gold, on average. 

Markets were also mulling over how the political deadlock in Washington will impact on negotiations to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which the U.S. Treasury Department has estimated will be reached by October 17. 

The shutdown prevented the release of September’s non-farm payrolls report last Friday and speculation is increasing that if the shutdown runs into the debt-ceiling deadline, the U.S. could see its sovereign credit rating lowered. 

Elsewhere, Comex silver for December delivery added 0.31% to USD21.820 per ounce while copper for December delivery gained 0.28% to USD3.309 an ounce.

Courtesy: Investing.com