Forexpros – Gold futures traded lower Friday as U.S. GDP concerns and global slowdown worries added to the bearish precious metal sentiment despite sovereign buying.
On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Gold futures for June delivery traded at USD1656.35 a troy ounce giving back 0.25%.
It earlier traded at a session low USD1651.15 a troy ounce. Gold was likely to find support at USD1623.95 and resistance at USD1661.55.
Starting the growth negative, gold bearish environment, S&P slashed Spain’s long term debt rating to BBB+ reporting that the outlook is negative in the face of the recession undermining efforts to cut the budget deficit.
In other Spanish news, the jobless rate spiked to 24.4%, hitting an eighteen year high, the National Statistics Institute reported.
Meanwhile, in Japan, the central bank expanded its plan for government-bond purchases by 10 trillion yen to support the economy.
Investors are awaiting the U.S. GDP later in the session.
Economists have projected the GDP to have grown at 2.5% annual rate, down from the 3% gain in the previous 3 months pressuring gold lower.
On the pro global growth side, data indicated Switzerland’s KOF economic barometer rose more-than-expected to a seasonally adjusted 0.40 last month from 0.09 in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 0.08.
Analysts had expected the KOF economic barometer to rise to 0.26 last month.
Gold is lower despite central bank buying of the precious metal.
Mexico, Russia and Turkey added about 44.8 metric tons of the commodity to their reserves in March, according to the International Monetary Fund.
In addition, hedge funds increased their net long gold positions by 2.5% in the week ended April 17, per the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gave back 0.05% to trade at USD78.97.
Elsewhere on the Comex, Silver for July delivery fell 0.36% to trade at USD31.163 a troy ounce while Copper for July delivery climbed 0.76% to trade at USD3.802 a pound.
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