Weekly Round-Up: Gold Slips Slightly on Good Manufacturing Data

The gold price fell on Friday after stronger-than-expected US manufacturing data raised concerns that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner rather than later. 
According to The Wall Street Journal, COMEX gold futures for December delivery sank 0.3 percent on the news, hitting $1,162.20 per ounce. The metal hit a weekly high of $1,178.20 earlier in the day. That’s off from last week’s high point of $1,184.30.
However, Friday’s fall doesn’t change the fact that gold has fared well in October overall. As of Friday it was up nearly 4.5 percent since the start of the month, largely on investor hopes that the Fed will not raise interest rates until 2016. While at the moment it’s tough to gauge whether that will happen, some clues may be given at the central bank’s next meeting, scheduled for October 27 and 28.

The silver price fared much the same as gold this past week, trading slightly lower than it did last week and taking a bit of a drop on Friday. Also like gold, the white metal has so far done well in October overall — as of Friday it had risen just over 9 percent since the start of the month.
On the base metals side, three-month LME copper fell Friday to $5,180 per tonne after reaching a one-week high of $5,319.50. The red metal was pushed down by a stronger dollar, which “offset optimism from top metals consumer China cutting interest rates,” as per Reuters.
In a note, Edward Meir, an analyst at INTL FCStone, said, “[t]he surprising strength in the dollar should keep the rallies somewhat in check. In fact, the significant deterioration we have seen set in over the past half an hour after a rather sharp bounce is indicative of just how jittery the markets are.”
Finally, the oil price fell on Friday, pushed down by dollar strength and weaker spot prices for US crude, Reuters states in another article. The news outlet notes that Brent crude was sitting at $47.80 per barrel as of 11:10 a.m. EST, while US WTI crude was at $44.68; earlier, WTI hit a three-week low of $44.20.

 
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
Related reading: 
Weekly Round-Up: Gold’s Rise Continues on Fed Speculation
Weekly Round-Up: Positive Price Action for Precious and Base Metals
Weekly Round-Up: Gold Price Spikes on US Jobs Report
Weekly Round-Up: Gold Down Slightly After Four-month High
Weekly Round-Up: Gold, Silver Still Trading Up After Fed Meeting