Gold News & Info

Source:Dana Samuelson, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold edged higher in today’s New York session, gaining 0.37%, rebounding from yesterday’s profit taking as tension in the Middle East continued to slow boil. Israel increased its excursion into southern Lebanon and struck at Hezbollah targets in Beirut. Meanwhile the world waits to see the ways Israel may retaliate against Iran for last week’s Iranian ICBM attack on Israel. Oil punched 4.64% higher today as fears of Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities percolated up, helping to buoy safe-haven gold.

This ISM services index increased from 51.5 in August to 54.9 in September, indicating the services sector of the economy continued to expand for the 49th time in the last 52 months. Both the business activity and new orders expanded 6.6% and 6.4% from August while employment contracted 2.1%. Contrarily, yesterday’s September manufacturing PMI report was unchanged from August at 47.2% but remained in a contractionary phase for the 6th month in a row and for 22 out of the last 23 months. Inventories and prices both decreased 6.4% and 5.7% respectively, while new orders increased 5.0%, but were still technically in contraction at 49.8. A number below 50 indicates contraction while a number above 50 indicates expansion.

The dollar and the US 10-year US Treasury yields continued their firming trend following the release of the ISM services report this morning. The firming dollar and yields trend, which began after the Iranian ICBM strike on Israel last week, continued with international monies flowing into the US seeking haven in the dollar and US Treasuries. Both were modestly higher, with the dollar rising 0.23% to 101.91 on the DXY and the 10-year T-bill yield rising 0.057 to 3,845%. Higher yields typically weigh on gold by increasing the opportunity cost for holding it instead of bonds for safety. The growing conflict in the Middle East, however, is buoying all safe-haven assets today.

Markets around the globe are waiting for tomorrow’s BLS non-farms payroll report indicating how many new US jobs were created in September, as well as the direction and size of the revisions for both July and August. Analysts are anticipating approximately 147,000 new jobs to be announced by the BLS. Strength or weakness in the September and October non-farms payroll reports will be one of the key factors determining how aggressive the Fed becomes in their current rate cutting cycle going into their last two meetings this year, Nov. 6 – 7 and December 17 – 18.

At the New York spot close: gold gained $10.00 to $2,657.10; silver gained 56 cents to $32.19; platinum fell $11.20 to $993.20; and palladium dropped $18.10 to $1,000.60 an ounce.