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Gold prices broke their winning streak this week as a stronger dollar put pressure on the yellow metal.
Gold prices were down this week as the US dollar regained strength. Prices were down 1.97 percent for the week to $1,251 per ounce.
According to the Wall Street Journal, results of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting put pressure on gold, as the fed is now once again considering a rise in interest rates. Ira Epstein, a strategist with the Linn Group, told the publication that some investors are pulling back on previously bullish bets.
Silver prices also fell for the week, dropping 4.28 percent to trade at $16.48 per ounce. As with gold, silver was driven down by a stronger US dollar.
“Gold and silver prices have taken a big plunge on the back of falling bond prices and rallying U.S. dollar since the release of the FOMC’s last policy meeting minutes … and the accompanying hawkish commentary from several Fed officials,” Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst for Forex.com and City Index told Reuters.
According to a recent report from FocusEconomics, the majority of analysts surveyed expect silver to end 2016 at a lower level, though some see the metal finishing the year as high as $19.50 per ounce.
On the base metals side of things, comex copper prices also fell for the week, losing 1.75 percent to reach $2.082 per pound.
According to MetalMiner, LME copper prices also fell to $4,600 per metric ton, marking a two month low for the red metal. Oversupply and lacklustre demand growth in China are still issues for copper.
Finally, spot oil prices finished the week fairly flat, up 0.13 percent to $47.95 per barrel. According to The Globe and Mail, global supply outages that were supporting the energy commodity last week have started to see some resolution.
“The overall market sentiment remains biased to the upside as a growing contingency of market participants are of the view that the market is already in a rebalancing pattern and the current round of unscheduled production cuts are starting to accelerate the process,” Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute, told the Globe.
Global benchmark Brent crude oil prices were down two cents to $48.79 per barrel by 11:28 a.m. EST, while US crude was also down two cents at $48.14 per barrel.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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